It was clear from the opening tip on Monday night that beating Cornell wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. The Big Red were giving Michigan State basketball all it could handle, and then some.
The two teams went into the halftime locker room of a 2-point game after combining for 108 total points and a boatload of fouls.
Tom Izzo couldn’t have been too happy about the defense as Cornell was shooting over 50 percent from the floor and nearly 40 percent from three. The Big Red had 53 first-half points which which was the most the Spartans had allowed in a first half this year, topping the previous high by 14 (!