EAST LANSING, Mich — Michigan State found its outside shooting touch and limited its turnovers early all while continuing to play air-tight defense.
Next up: conference competition.
The 22nd-ranked Spartans pulled away early and managed to fight off a strong second half from pesky Toledo for an 81-68 victory Saturday at Breslin Center.
Gabe Brown scored 10 of his 12 points and Marcus Bingham Jr. had eight of his 10 points in the first half. Max Christie got 11 of his 14 after halftime; point guards A.J. Hoggard and Tyson Walker combined for 21 points and 10 assists as the Spartans finished with just 12 turnovers.
MSU (7-2) opens Big Ten play Wednesday at Minnesota. Tipoff at Williams Arena in Minneapolis is 9 p.m.
The Spartans shook off some early sluggishness — they missed their first five 3-point tries and opened 2 for 9 — to run away from the Rockets at the midpoint of the first half.
Toledo took a 10-7 lead on a three-point play by Kooper Jacobi on a lazy reach-in foul by Malik Hall. But from there, MSU erupted with a 33-5 run that put the game out of reach.
To do so, the Spartans forced the Rockets to commit nine turnovers after the first media timeout and turned those into 14 points by half. MSU committed just four first-half turnovers.
And after the off-target start, the Spartans made nine of their final 12 from 3-point range and 12 of their last 27 shots overall. They finished 12 for 26 from deep for the game and overcame shooting just 37.9% after halftime.
Brown scored MSU's first seven points and hit one of seven 3-pointers in the pull-away run. Jaden Akins hit two, while Christie, Bingham, Joey Hauser each hit a 3-pointer as well. Tyson Walker's deep bomb off a high ball screen from Mady Sissoko closed the run, and the Spartans went into half leading 43-23.
MSU's defense remained at an elite level early, holding Toledo to 3-for-11 shooting from 3-point range and just 8-of-30 shooting for the half. Rockets leading scorer Ryan Rollins made just two of his first eight shots, including a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer, and had seven points at halftime.
Toledo (5-2) opened the second half on a 10-4 run and pulled within 13 at about 10 minutes remaining. A 3-point try by Jacobi rimmed out, and Jaden Akins drained a second-chance 3 at the other end to extend MSU's lead back to 64-48 with 8:19 to play.
But Toledo (5-2) remained scrappy, scoring the next seven points to get back within single digits. Julius Marble II responded with a tough layup in traffic and a follow dunk off a Christie miss with 5:14 to play that forced the Rockets to call timeout. The Spartans' lead never dipped beneath 11 the rest of the way.
MSU held Toledo to 35.4% shooting and just 4-for-24 shooting from 3-point range for the game. Rollins, a sophomore guard who entered averaging 20 points per game, finished with 21 points on 7-for-22 shooting for Toledo.
