Michigan St. Spartans vs Oakland Golden Grizzlies Box Score on Dec 14, 2019

Aaron Henry scored 10 points to lead a balanced attack as No. 16 Michigan State beat Oakland 72-49 in Detroit.

Twelve players scored for Michigan State (7-3), which held Oakland to 26.2 percent shooting (17 for 65) as the Spartans remained perfect against the Golden Grizzlies, winning for the 18th time in 18 meetings.

Senior guard Cassius Winston was limited to nine points on 3-for-13 shooting, including 1-for-9 from 3-point range. Junior Xavier Tillman added nine points and 13 rebounds for the Spartans, who return to Big Ten play on Wednesday at Northwestern.

Michigan State was dominant down low, scoring 36 points in the paint while controlling the glass, outrebounding Oakland, 54-31.

Xavier Hill-Mais scored 10 for Oakland (5-6), which has lost four of five.

The Spartans started slowly before they erupted on a 20-3 run to take control in the first half. A Winston 3-pointer got things going as fifth-year senior Kyle Ahrens followed with a triple. Sophomore Thomas Kithier scored two straight buckets in the stretch followed by two in a row from sophomore Gabe Brown, the second resulting in a three-point play after he was fouled on the break.

A 3-pointer from seldom-used fifth-year senior Conner George and a running jumper from Winston capped the run to give Michigan State a 24-9 lead with 8:14 to play in the first half. The lead eventually grew to 19 as Tillman scored on back-to-back trips to give the Spartans a 34-15 advantage. However, Oakland scored the final four points to cut the deficit to 34-19 at halftime.

Michigan State scored the first 10 points of the second half to open it up and was never threatened from that point, even as Oakland dropped in a handful of 3-pointers over the final 10 minutes.

--Field Level Media