Michigan St. Spartans vs Oakland Golden Grizzlies Box Score on Dec 16, 2017

The Sports Xchange
Dec 16, 2017

DETROIT -- Sophomore guard Cassius Winston scored 19 points to lead five players in double figures, and sophomore center Nick Ward had 15 points and 15 rebounds to lead No. 2 Michigan State to an 86-73 win over Oakland University in a nonconference game at Little Caesars Arena.

Michigan State only led by one point at 69-68 with 4:55 remaining, but a 9-0 run gave the Spartans a 78-68 lead with 3:05 left.

Following a 3-pointer by sophomore Miles Bridges, Winston hit back-to-back 3-pointers to complete the 9-0 Michigan State run and give the Spartans some breathing room.

Sophomore guard Josh Langford scored 17 points, Bridges had 11 points and freshmen Jaren Jackson added 10 points for Michigan State (10-1), which won its ninth straight game.

Oakland senior Kendrick Nunn, playing in his first season with the Golden Grizzlies after transferring from Illinois, scored a game-high 32 points.

Nunn, who was questionable to play with a nagging ankle injury, shot 9 of 19 from the field overall and 5 of 12 from 3-point range.

Oakland (6-5) trailed at halftime, 38-33, but got hot from the perimeter and took a 55-52 lead with 14:25 remaining in the game on a 3-pointer by Nunn.

Michigan State answered with a 9-3 run to take a 63-58 lead with 10:12 left, but Oakland countered with five straight points to tie the game at 63-63 with 8:53 remaining.

Michigan State held a 31-19 lead with over six minutes left in the first half, but Oakland closed the half with 14-7 run to close its deficit to just five at 38-33.

NOTES: Michigan State improved to 16-0 all-time against Oakland...The contest was the second half of a doubleheader, the first day of college basketball games ever played at the new Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. Michigan and Detroit Mercy played in the first game... In his 34th season as head coach at Oakland, Greg Kampe is 13 victories shy of collecting his 600thcareer win. Kampe ranks third in the country for most seasons with one school behind Jim Boeheim of Syracuse (42 years) and Mike Krzyzewski of Duke (38 years)...Michigan State will now play its next five games at home. The next time the Spartans will play a game away from Breslin Center will be Jan. 7 at Ohio State...Oakland will have two more non-conference home games against Towson on Wednesday and Eastern Michigan on Friday before opening up conference play on Dec. 28 at Milwaukee...Michigan State entered the game No. 1 nationally in field goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to shoot 33.1 percent from the field...In October, Oakland was picked as the favorite to win the Horizon League in the conference's preseason poll.