MSU women rout U-M for fifth straight win

EAST LANSING - Branndais Agee wasn't able to help the Michigan State women's basketball team against its rival a year ago.

The sophomore guard was Wednesday and continued to make her presence felt on the court for surging MSU.

Agee helped set the tone in what was a career night and was a key contributor for the No. 17-ranked Spartans in their 85-64 victory over Michigan at Breslin Center on Wednesday in the lone regular-season meeting between the rivals.

Agee had a career-high 20 points and was one of four players to score in double figures for the Spartans in their latest win.

"Last year when we lost on our floor by like 20 against them, that really hurt us," said Agee, who was out all last season with an injury. "We didn't want that to happen again. For me to come out there and have the fire going at the very beginning of the game, that just pumped everybody up."

Reigning Big Ten player of the week Aerial Powers continued her torrid play by scoring 27 points on 9 of 12 shooting and adding eight rebounds to help the Spartans (17-4, 8-2 Big Ten) win their fifth straight and remain a loss behind conference leaders Maryland and Ohio State.

Tori Jankoska added 16 points and Morgan Green scored 10 in her return to the lineup for MSU, which led by as much as 29 while kicking off a stretch of three games in five days with a dominant victory.

"I thought we played really well and just set the tone out of the gates," said MSU coach Suzy Merchant, whose team took control with a 12-2 run to end the second quarter that pushed their lead to 20 at the intermission. "We had just a demeanor about us that this was going to go our way."

The Spartans continued their strong play defensively and held Michigan (12-10, 4-7) to 38.6 percent shooting and 17 points below their season average. Katelynn Flaherty, one of the nation's top scorers, had 18 points to lead the Wolverines, who suffered their fourth loss in five games.

"I think that's one of the best things in their program is their defense," Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. "Obviously they have incredible, incredible scorers, but I really think that they are a tough hard-nosed defensive team. That's something that I respect about them, and that's something I think will take them far in the tournament this year.

"They've got some really good scorers and can do things on the offensive end, but they really make things uncomfortable for teams on the defensive end and they really made it uncomfortable for us."

Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @brian_calloway