EAST LANSING - Purdue arrived in town about two hours before the start of its game with Michigan State and could have left an hour early.
The Spartans' 83-58 romp Saturday at Breslin Center was over shortly after halftime, primarily because MSU shot the ball extremely well and Purdue did the opposite.
The Boilermakers couldn't fly in Friday as planned, thanks to a mechanical issue with their first plane and weather grounding the second. So they hopped aboard a bus at 4:45 a.m. Saturday and got to East Lansing at 9:45 a.m. for the noon tip.
That's the recipe for a tired team. Not that it explains everything the Spartans did to the Boilermakers.
"If our travel was perfect, I think the score's somewhere close (to what it was)," Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "Maybe some guys' legs weren't quite under them, but that's an excuse in my opinion."
No. 9 MSU (16-4 overall, 5-2 Big Ten) halted a two-game losing streak and pulled into a first-place tie with Michigan, which beat the Spartans 60-59 Tuesday. Ohio State made it a three-way tie by winning at Nebraska on Saturday night.
The Spartans made 30 of 50 shots (60 percent), including 7 of 13 from 3-point range. Purdue (14-6, 4-3) made 18 of 62 shots (29 percent) and just 3 of 20 from 3-point range.
Purdue fifth-year senior star Robbie Hummel missed all 11 of his shots, going without a basket for the first time in his career.
"Got a lot of good looks, just didn't make them," Hummel said. "It's frustrating. It's embarrassing that I didn't make a shot."
Nine Spartans made shots, including freshman guard Branden Dawson, who broke from recent struggles to lead MSU with 14 points.
Derrick Nix and Austin Thornton came off the bench to score 12 and 11, respectively, Keith Appling had 10 points and five assists, and Draymond Green had eight points, 12 rebounds and seven assists.
After some early issues with turnovers and defensive rebounding, the Spartans dominated. They had an 18-0 advantage in fast-break points and responded as hoped to the brief losing skid that followed a 15-game winning streak.
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"Got our mojo back, started our winning streak back," said Nix, who made 5 of 7 shots and passed crisply when Purdue gave him extra attention.
"I feel good about the win, but I also want to give respect to a team that went through some tough things, tough situation," said MSU coach Tom Izzo, who got career win No. 399. "And I thought Matt did a great job of getting them ready under the circumstances."
The lopsided nature of the game allowed Izzo to give a boost to some young players. Dawson scored in double figures for the first time since Dec. 22 against Lehigh, showing off his athleticism with dunks and blocks.
Izzo said Dawson "got better defensively today."
"I watched film from the Michigan game and I was terrible on defense," Dawson said. "Stu Douglass blew past me, coach got on me watching film. So today, I told myself, 'Sit down on defense, stay down.' "
Freshman guard Travis Trice also struggled at U-M but returned to making some dazzling plays Saturday.
"Trice and Dawson, it was important," Izzo said. "Travis to me in the Michigan game looked a little unsure. And I just thought in the second half he looked a lot more sure. He had some great passes, exploded with the ball. He dictated the tempo instead of letting them dictate to him. So if he can continue to do that, we'll be a much better team."
MSU was the much better team of the two on the floor Saturday. But those teams will meet again on Feb. 19 at Purdue, and the Boilermakers likely will be ready for it after a chippy second half.
"They have to come back to West Lafayette," Hummel said. "We'll see them again."
MSU 83, PURDUE 58
PURDUE (58)
Player Min FG FT Reb A F Pts
Hummel 22 0-11 2-2 6 0 2 2
Carroll 14 1-1 2-2 2 0 3 4
Barlow 25 2-7 2-3 4 0 3 6
Jackson 22 3-7 4-5 6 4 0 10
Smith 20 1-6 2-2 3 0 2 4
T. Johnson 14 2-5 0-1 1 0 1 5
A. Johnson 18 1-7 1-1 2 1 1 3
Anthrop 4 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0
Byrd 16 2-11 2-2 2 0 0 7
Beshears 2 1-1 0-0 1 0 0 2
Hart 16 3-4 3-4 0 1 1 10
Lawson 15 1-1 0-0 3 0 3 2
Marcius 12 1-1 1-2 2 0 2 3
TEAM 2
Totals 200 18-50 19-24 34 7 18 58
MICHIGAN STATE (83)
Player Min FG FT Reb A F Pts
Green 33 3-6 2-2 12 7 1 8
Payne 18 3-5 3-4 3 0 3 9
Appling 29 3-4 3-4 2 5 2 10
Dawson 19 6-7 2-2 3 0 1 14
Wood 23 3-4 0-0 0 0 2 8
Byrd 6 0-1 0-0 2 0 1 0
Gauna 6 0-1 2-2 2 0 1 2
Kearney 9 1-3 0-0 3 0 0 3
Thornton 18 4-8 0-0 1 0 2 11
Chapman 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Wetzel 1 0-1 1-2 0 0 1 1
Trice 16 2-3 1-2 0 4 3 5
Nix 17 5-7 2-4 4 2 1 12
Sweeny 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Wollenman 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Ianni 2 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0
TEAM 1
Totals 200 30-50 16-22 33 18 19 83
3-point goals--MSU 7-13 (Wood 2-2, Appling 1-1, Trice 0-1, Green 0-2, Thornton 3-4, Kearney 1-2, Wetzel 0-1). Purdue 3-20 (Hummel 0-6, Smith 0-5, Jackson 0-1, T. Johnson 1-1, A. Johnson 0-1, Byrd 1-4, Hart 1-2).Turnovers--MSU 11, Purdue 11. Halftime--MSU 31, Purdue 24. Attendance--14,797.
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