(EAST LANSING) - Six Michigan State players scored in double figures as the Spartans drilled the Florida A&M Rattlers 104-72 as they prepare for their nationally televised showdown against the Duke Blue Devils at the end of the month.
The Spartans were led by sixth-man Kelvin Torbert who came off the bench to score 21 points. "If this were hockey I would give Torbert my first star. There was not rhyme or reason behind not starting him tonight. But, for him to come off the bench and contribute like he did really tells you what kind of kid he is. I thought he played exceptionally well."
Torbert was 8-of-10 from the floor including three three pointers. Maurice Ager had his second consecutive strong outings with 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting. Guard Shannon Brown added 18, senior guard Chris Hill chipped in with 14 and forwards Paul Davis and Alan Anderson each added 10 more.
Rugged forward Delco Rowley helped the Spartans with 12 rebounds throttling FAMU's attempt to make it a game.
"I have to thank you all for sticking around until the end," said FAMU coach Mike Gillespie. I probably would have left at halftime. If I could have left, I would have. Obviously the better team won. There is a reason why these are called guaranteed games, but what a great environment and what a tremendous team. I wish that we could have played a little bit better.
Gillespie said Michigan State played well in all phases of the game.
"There wasn't one phase of the game that they didn't do well. They guarded, they shared the basketball, they ran a great fast-break and their ability to shoot the ball is incredible. I thought we did a good job with Paul Davis holding him to ten points, that was a positive for us. With all the guys, Ager, Brown, Torbert and Hill, making all those threes, it makes it difficult to guard. The neat thing about their team is everyone is interchangeable."
Izzo, though, wants to see State do a better job rebounding the basketball. We didn't rebound as well as I would have liked to, and we had too many careless turnovers. But, there were a lot more positives than negatives."
MSU (1-0) now prepares for Wisconsin-Green Bay Tuesday at the Breslin Center. The Phoenix opened the season by whipping the Jaguars of Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) 68-53.