ANN ARBOR – Tre Holloman came off a screen and knocked down an open 3-pointer in front of the Michigan State bench.
Following an offensive rebound by Jaxon Kohler, the junior guard took a feed near the top of the key and drained another.
Back-to-back triples meant Holloman wasn’t going to hesitate the next time down the court. He floated a step back over 7-footer Danny Wolf for a third straight beyond the arc.
Holloman’s three triples in less than 90 seconds midway through the second half helped power No. 14 Michigan State (22-5, 13-3 Big Ten) to a 75-62 win at No. 12 Michigan (20-6, 12-3) on Friday night.
“I felt good so I just shot the next one and it dropped,” Holloman recalled. “That kind of gave us a spark, it gave us a little cushion. That was big for us.”
The victory at Crisler Center shook up the Big Ten standings with the Spartans jumping a half-game ahead of the Wolverines for first place with two weeks to play in the regular season. As Michigan fans headed for the exits in the waning moments on Friday, chants of “go green, go white” rang out in the arena as the Wolverines had a six-game winning streak snapped in their first home loss of the season.
“We had to go in there and take it from them and that’s what we did tonight,” said freshman guard Jase Richardson, who scored 21 and grabbed six rebounds to pace the Spartans.
Michigan State, which opened the season unranked, put together a 13-game winning streak – its longest in six years – before dropping three of four to start February. That skid was followed by rallying from 16 down for a win in hostile territory at Illinois last week before Tuesday’s victory against No. 13 Purdue. The Spartans went seven minutes without a field goal in the first half in Ann Arbor and gave up a 15-0 run before closing strong again for a third straight win in the rivalry.
“I’ve had a chance to do a lot of things in my career but I’m not sure I ever had a seven-day span like the one we just had,” said coach Tom Izzo, who surpassed Bob Knight for the most career Big Ten wins with the victory at Illinois. “Most of the credit should go to my assistant coaches and my players.”
After shooting just 38.7 percent from the field in the first half and committing nine turnovers, Michigan State went into the locker room down only four. Holloman’s three straight triples created separation and the Spartans were ahead the final 14-plus minutes. Going 6-for-12 from 3-point range in the second half obviously helped for a team that entered the game 347th in the nation in 3-point shooting at just 29.1 percent. Michigan State also had only two turnovers in the final 20 minutes.
“If we’d shoot it and not turn it over, I think we could be really good,” Izzo said, “because I think we will defend and rebound.”
As the son of former Michigan State and NBA standout Jason Richardson, Jase Richardson was raised to dislike the Wolverines. He came through in his first experience with the rivalry.
“This is really special for us,” he said, “but there’s still four games left and a lot can happen in four games.”
Michigan State has now secured consecutive wins against ranked teams and there are more to come. The Spartans play at No. 20 Maryland on Wednesday before hosting No. 11 Wisconsin to finish next week. After that, it’s a trip to Iowa before a rematch against Michigan to close the regular season in East Lansing. A brutal stretch is ahead as the Spartans look for their first Big Ten title in five years.
“Sometimes losing brings you down and sometimes winning makes you a little better than you are and right now winning has helped us,” Izzo said, “but we’ve got four monster games left.”
