EAST LANSING, Mich. _ Nick Ward went out. Cassius Winston stepped up.
Michigan State's point guard scored 14 points in the first 3-plus minutes of the second half, including three straight 3-pointers, to lift the 11th-ranked Spartans to an 80-59 victory over Louisiana Monroe on Wednesday night at Breslin Center.
However, the win came with a loss for MSU (2-1).
Ward crashed to the floor with 12:12 left in the first half, slamming his fists against the court while laying inside the key under the basket. Ward popped himself off the floor and hobbled through the tunnel to the training room, unable to put weight on his right leg.
The 6-foot-9 junior forward, who bypassed the NBA draft to return to MSU for his junior season, had four points, three rebounds, a block and an assist in five minutes before the injury. He did not return with what the Spartan Sports Network radio broadcast deemed a lower-body injury that was not serious.
Winston finished with a team-high 23 points on 9 of 22 shooting to go with five rebounds and three assists. Joshua Langford added 16 points on 7 of 15 shooting for the Spartans, who take on Tennessee Tech on Sunday.
The Warhawks (2-2), coming off Monday night's 65-55 loss at Texas, gave the Spartans a big test in the first half and had taken a 14-13 lead just as Ward suffered his injury.
The teams shot poorly early and traded leads until MSU scored five straight late in the half and carried a 35-29 lead into halftime. The Spartans made just 28.2 percent overall and shot just 2 of 19 from the 3-point line.
Ward did not return with the team after the break, but Winston did.
The 6-foot junior guard took over.
Winston hit a driving layup and got fouled, converting a three-point play to open the Spartans' second-half scoring. He then drove to the basket for another bucket, forcing ULM to call timeout 1:40 into the half.
But he wasn't done. Winston came out of that break and drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key on a break, then hit another from the left wing. He did it again on the next trip, and Xavier Tillman's layup less than a minute later built MSU's lead to 18.
The Spartans recovered to shoot 54.8 percent in the second half and 40 percent overall while holding the Warhawks to 30.5 percent for the game.
Ward's injury hampered coach Tom Izzo's rotation, which already is limited in size and experience in the post aside from senior Kenny Goins and sophomore Xavier Tillman.
Redshirt junior Kyle Ahrens played more than seven minutes in the first half, many of them at small forward with Goins and Tillman splitting the center position in Ward's absence. Marcus Bingham played four minutes, blocking two shots and grabbing a rebound, while fellow freshman Thomas Kithier played the final minute of the half.
In the second half, Izzo began to use Kithier more in a rotation with Tillman and Goins.
However, Goins and Tillman both dominated the glass with Ward out.
Tillman, a 6-foot-8 forward, finished with 11 points and a career-best 13 rebounds before going down with about four minutes to play with an injury to the inner part of his right thigh. He remained on the bench, stretching out his leg.
Goins finished with a career-high 15 rebounds as MSU controlled the boards, 51-37, against the smaller Warhawks.
