Seniors show out for win over Nebraska

After Michigan State’s 91-76 point win against Nebraska, one might call Tuesday night’s game, the Kenny Goins show. Or maybe the Matt McQuaid show. Or even both, since the two seniors each had career-highs and kept the crowd on their feet the whole game.

“It’s just March you know, the intensity [has] risen, the stakes are higher… it’s time to step up for everybody,” said McQuaid.

Before the 1st half the game was even over, Goins had already reached his career-high in points, scoring 21. The forward finished by leading the team in scoring with 24 points and making another career-best of 6 made-threes. McQuaid was not far behind Goins, following his suit with 22 points. The guard went 6-7 from the field and 4-5 from deep.

The duo’s high scoring game comes just days before the last game of the season as well as senior night.

“It’s kind of like that senior week and me and McQuaid were doing everything we could to close this game and I’m sure we’ll do the same this Saturday,” said Goins.

Behind the hype of the seniors, freshman forward Aaron Henry also had a career-high game with 15 points while sophomore forward Xavier Tillman put up 11 points and eight rebounds.

Though guard Cassius Winston played the most at 31 minutes, he had a slow game, only hitting for eight points on nine attempts. According to Tom Izzo, Winston had a flare up of tendinitis in his knee in the beginning of the game after being hit. He will, however, play in Saturday’s game, said Izzo.

“I don’t live and die with us shooting 12 three’s but I don’t live and die with us giving up 10 [three’s] either,” said Izzo. “We still got to hang our hat on what we been hanging it on for 24 years. We still got to defend, we got to rebound and we got to run.”

The Spartans will end the regular season play with a home game against rival University of Michigan, Saturday night.