Roundball recap: A look back at MSU’s win over Stony Brook

After a first half where it looked like the Spartans could be on upset alert, MSU topped Stony Brook 93-71.

Next up is the PK80 where we will get to enjoy midnight basketball (if you live in the eastern time zone, that is), but before that we need to break down Sunday’s game.

First things first, the last possible thing that needed to happen indeed happened. Miles Bridges went down and rolled his left ankle badly, and by now you probably know he’s day-to-day with an ankle sprain. Not ideal with the PK80 on the horizon, but all well – what can you do?

We don’t know exactly how many games he’ll miss – if any – so I won’t speculate any longer. But this was the main story from the game.

Langford looked comfortable being aggressive out there, which was great to see. He racked up 19 points with only one 3-pointer, driving inside for the bulk of his points. You can make a case he had the best game yesterday, but the guy giving him a run for his money is…

Nick Ward, as usual, who was nearly automatic in the post on 8-10 shooting en route to a team-high 22 points. With Stony Brook’s short lineup, this game reeked of “Ward scoring at will” before it even began.

Mike Carter-USA TODAY Sports

The point guards played solid yesterday. Nothing groundbreaking, but enough to keep the offense moving with six assists coming from Cassius Winston (also two turnovers) and four assists and no turnovers coming from Tum Tum Nairn.

Let’s all forget that Jaren Jackson outing. It’s safe to say that will be his most underwhelming performance of the season. Zero points, zero assists and zero blocks to go along with five fouls have Jackson visibly letdown when he checked out, but how could he not be? Hey, better to have these sort of games early in the season against Stony Brook. He’ll certainly bounce back at the PK80.

Don’t sleep on Xavier Tillman, who killed two people in one possession early into his outing. He also had nine points, five rebounds and three blocks in his 13 minutes of work.