EAST LANSING — Tom Izzo needed a spark after a slow start. He found it in Jaxon Kohler and the rest of Michigan State basketball’s backups.
The junior big came off the bench for career highs with 20 points and 13 rebounds Thursday night as the Spartans pulled away from Niagara, 96-60, at Breslin Center.
The 6-foot-9 Kohler hit eight of 12 shot attempts and went 4-for-5 at the free-throw line.
“He just went,” Izzo said. “As I tell our guys, effort-related things (are) a choice. It’s a choice — do you want to do it, or you not want to do it? Do you want to go, or do you not want to go? Do you want to run or do you not want to run? …
“And I give (Kohler) credit. I told you, he was the best player I had all summer, and he did some good things. He did some really good things. And he got to the line, and that helped us get to the line.”
But he wasn’t alone in doing damage for MSU, which had five players score in double figures — including two other reserves.
Freshman Jase Richardson came off the bench to finish with 12 points in his second collegiate game, while junior Tre Holloman added 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting. Starters Frankie Fidler added 11 points and four rebounds, Jaden Akins had 10 points and six rebounds and point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. had seven points and eight assists.
The offseason and early season tests are over for Izzo’s new-look squad. The Spartans (2-0) prepare for their first major challenge of the season Tuesday, when they face No. 1 Kansas in the Champions Classic. Tipoff is 6:30 p.m. at State Farm Arena in Atlanta (ESPN).
The Jayhawks opened Monday with an 87-57 blowout of Howard, but their first marquee game of the season comes Friday when they host No. 10 North Carolina at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas.
“Let’s face it: We haven’t played the Celtics yet,” Izzo said. “I guess we do, though, right around the corner. So we’ll kind of see where we are early in the year. Are we ready for that or not? We’ll find out.”
Olumide Adelodun had 13 points and Jahari Williamson 12 for Niagara (1-1), which plays Detroit Mercy at 1 p.m. Sunday at Calihan Hall in its second of seven straight road games.
Bench power
After opening the season Monday with a quick-blitz 17-2 run in an eventual 81-57 home win over Monmouth, MSU had to play from behind quickly Thursday.
The Purple Eagles, coached by former Duke basketball and Syracuse football standout Greg Paulus, opened the game with three 3-pointers to stagger the Spartans’ starters with an 11-4 burst.
Izzo quickly turned to his bench, and his second unit provided the type of instant offense the 30th-year MSU coach hopes it will throughout the season.
Coen Carr got it started with another of his typically electrifying dunks, and Kohler followed with a putback layup through contact and finished the three-point play. The Spartans’ reserves — Kohler, Carr, Holloman and Richardson — joined Akins in putting together a 12-1 counterpunch to take the lead for good and prompt a Paulus timeout. The starters returned from there and promptly added another basket from Szymon Zapala before Adelodun converted a three-point play. No matter, as Fears scored on a drive through traffic, set up Xavier Booker for a 3-pointer and got a steal and layup as part of a 16-4 spurt that extended the lead to 28-16.
The Purple Eagles kept in the game from beyond the arc, hitting seven first-half 3-pointers, including four from Jhaylon Martinez. Adelodun scored the final five points of the half, including a 3 with 34 seconds left, as Niagara closed with a 7-2 spurt of its own to cut MSU’s cushion to 46-39.
Along with the defensive issues on the arc, the Spartans struggled on the glass and had just a 17-14 edge at half against the quick and gritty but undersized Purple Eagles. MSU also went just 3-for-9 from deep, continuing the outside shooting woes that have plagued Izzo’s team in Spain and in exhibition play.
Boarding school
That dearth of rebounding clearly irked Izzo. His Spartans came out of halftime attacking the glass far more fiercely.
After Adelodun hit the Purple Eagles’ eighth 3-pointer and a dunk by Will Shortt coming out of halftime cut it to a three-point game, the Spartans started pounding the offensive glass and getting put-back points. Kohler scored inside, Fidler cleaned up a Booker miss and got fouled for a three-point play, then Kohler grabbed his own missed shot and put it back as part of an 11-0 answering run that forced Paulus to call timeout with MSU extending its lead to 58-44. The Spartans had four offensive boards and nine second-chance points in the first 4:24 of the final half.
Kohler continued to have his way inside, attacking the glass for boards and putbacks and using his size advantage to persistently post-up the smaller Purple Eagles. And almost as quickly as Niagara cut it to a one-possession game, MSU pushed its lead to 22 points with a Zapala dunk, a baseline spin for a layup from Kohler and a three-point play by Richardson..
Ten different Spartans scored and nine had at least one rebound before the final media timeout. MSU finished with a 45-28 rebounding edge thanks to a 28-14 second-half performance. That included 11 offensive boards for a 13-2 second chance scoring advantage. The Spartans also had a 28-12 scoring edge in the paint and a 13-0 fastbreak advantage after halftime.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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