Overall, the Battle 4 Atlantis should be seen as a huge positive for Michigan State basketball. They had two very gutsy wins against tough programs, but they simply ran out of gas on Friday in the championship game against Baylor.
The Spartans came out of the gate looking tough and entered half time only down by two points, but were outscored 37-22 in the second half and ended up losing 75-58.
Once again, this was a game that came down to turnovers for the Spartans, which has become the theme for Tom Izzo’s team the last two season since losing Cassius Winston to the NBA. Baylor turned MSU over 18 times in this one.
If there was one bright spot in this one for the Spartans outside of the first half performance, it was Jaden Akins. The freshman had 12 points, 3 rebounds and a steal and looked very much like the point guard of the future for MSU and provided a more aggressive, athletic scoring punch than what Tyson Walker and AJ Hoggard have provided this year.
Gabe Brown led MSU in scoring with 13 points to go along with 5 boards and 2 assists.
Baylor looked phenomenal and like they will probably compete for another title this year.
