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Michigan State's Grace VanSlooten, center, hugs fellow senior Emma Shumate during the fourth quarter in the game against Northwestern on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing. | Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
On Friday night, the Michigan State Women’s Basketball Team looked every bit as rusty as you would expect from a team that has not played since March 5 (and hasn’t won a game since February 22). After losing their position as a four-seed, and the hosting of first weekend games that comes with it, the Spartans came out in this NCAA Tournament opener ice cold.
Despite being a 17.5-point favorite, MSU found themselves playing from behind for a large portion of the matchup with the 12-seeded Rams. The Spartans scored the first bucket of the game, a 3-pointer from Jalyn Brown, but then did not score for about five minutes. Fortunately, the Rams were not lighting up the scoreboard either. In the second part of the first quarter, MSU did retake the lead and were up by 3 after 1.
The second quarter saw MSU struggle even more than they did in the opening stanza, managing only 11 points, and they trailed at halftime 29-27. After hitting the opening triple, the Spartans missed the other 8 attempts they took from deep prior to the break.
Michigan State had their largest point output in the third quarter, putting up 20 and bringing the game to a tie heading to the final ten minutes. But most of the damage was done on the interior. At one point in the quarter, the broadcast showed that MSU had gone 1-15 from deep. Fortunately, MSU’s Kennedy Blair and Jalyn Brown each hit a three in the back half of the 3rd.
In the final quarter, MSU finally looked like the better team. Let me clarify, they did not look like a good team, just a better team than CSU. The Spartans snagged 4 offensive rebounds in the last ten minutes, compared to none for the Rams, allowing them to take advantage of more field goal opportunities to finally get a multi-possession lead. In the final minute, CSU hit a triple to half the lead to 65-62 with 39 seconds remaining. With ten seconds on the clock, MSU’s Rashunda Jones missed a FG attempt, and the Rams had one last chance to tie the game. They advanced the ball and kicked it to the corner for a shot at the buzzer, but the ball sailed over the rim and the Spartans prevailed. It wasn’t pretty, but they got the job done. Hopefully, this one helped knock off the rust.
Grace VanSlooten scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for yet another double-double for the senior leader. Point guard Kennedy Blair matched VanSlooten with 18 points and also added 6 helpers. Jalyn Brown, with 13, was the other Spartan in double-figures.
Robyn Fralick will now lead her team into the 2nd round for the second consecutive season. On Sunday, the Lady Spartans will face the winner of Oklahoma and Idaho.
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