#3 Michigan State outlasts #12 Seton Hall in a Heavyweight Matchup

(Vincent Carchietta/USA TODAY Sports)

A heavyweight matchup of the Gavitt Games, #3 Michigan State went to the Prudential Center to face off against #12 Seton Hall. Two of the top teams in the country and two of the top players in the country went toe to toe, resulting in easily the best game of the year so far. It was a hard-fought battle, with great shows of defense and offense by both sides, but in the end, there could be one winner and Michigan State came out on top 76 to 73.

For Michigan State, the backdrop of this game was the loss of Cassius Winston’s brother on Saturday, who wore a patch that said “Smoothie” in honor of Zachary Winston. Cassius Winston played well, scoring 21 points and hitting shots when it mattered. Xavier Tillman played well defensively, especially down the stretch but struggled on offense going 1-9 from the field. But when Michigan State needed someone to step up, freshmen Malik Hall came off the bench and shot a perfect 7 of 7 from the field and hit three shots from beyond on the arc.

As for Seton Hall, Myles Powell was Myles Powell, who was playing on an injured ankle, scored 34 points on 12-27 and hitting 6-14 from 3. Powell played like a national player of the year and he came up big when it  Myles Cale chipped in 12 points, Mamukelshavili, but off the bench Romaro Gill had a huge game on the defensive end, blocking five shots, grabbing eight boards and contesting any shot that came his way.

This was a fantastic game, two great teams going back and forth playing great basketball. This is easily this year’s best game and will be hard to top. This is a tough loss for Seton Hall, who had the third-largest crowd for a Seton Hall basketball game and the crowd was in it the entire game. As for Michigan State, this is a great win and a good bounce back from the loss to Kentucky during the Championship Classic.

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