Caleb Swanigan, fouls plague Michigan State in 80-63 loss at Purdue
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Nick Ward flipped his arms up in frustration. His third foul earned him a quick ticket to the bench.
Kenny Goins replaced him. In the 45 seconds that followed, he, too, got whistled for his second and third fouls. With more than 18 minutes to play.
Each then picked up a fourth in the next 4 minutes. By the time they finally fouled out, any hope Michigan State had of a comeback had long since left Mackey Arena.
The foul trouble that plagued Michigan State in its first meeting with No. 16 Purdue proved problematic once again Saturday, as the Boilermakers pounded the ball in the paint over and over en route to an 80-63 victory Saturday.
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“It’s hard when you can’t play defense how you’re supposed to play defense, but you can’t do anything about it now,” said Ward, who had a career-low six points and just two rebounds in only 12 minutes. “I’m not looking for a whistle, I’m not looking for a whistle at all. Let us play. It’s a physical game.”
The Spartans (16-11, 8-6 Big Ten) had their two-game win streak snapped and fell to 2-5 on the road this season, missing an opportunity to put a signature victory on their bubble-teetering NCAA tournament record.
MSU also suffered a more significant loss. Eron Harris suffered a right leg injury on a drive to the basket with 9:18 to play in the second half. The senior guard from Indianapolis was wheeled off the court on a stretcher to a standing ovation from the Purdue fans. A number of Spartans were crying.
Tom Izzo said he saw Harris walking on crutches after the game, and the MSU coach termed the initial diagnosis as a “badly sprained knee.” Harris will have an MRI either Sunday or Monday after the team returns to East Lansing to determine the severity, but Izzo said he expects Harris “will be out for a while.”
“Everybody just went over and gave him a hug” after the game, junior point guard Tum Tum Nairn said. “We just gotta rally together, as we’ve had to do the whole year with all the injuries. Coach said we’re the team that has to grind it out, so we’ll keep grinding.”
Miles Bridges led the Spartans with 14 points and nine rebounds, scoring 11 in the second half after the Boilermakers had pulled away for good. The freshman had 33 points in the first meeting, an 84-73 Purdue win in East Lansing.
Caleb Swanigan and Isaac Hass exploited MSU’s lack of size in the paint all day, combining for 42 points and 20 rebounds as the first-place Boilermakers (22-5, 11-3) moved a half-game in front of Wisconsin and Maryland. They also did exactly what they did in the first meeting, by getting both Ward and Goins into foul trouble. The 6-foot-9 former MSU commit Swanigan and 7-2 Haas combined to make 15 of 23 shots.
The Spartans were whistled for 23 fouls to Purdue’s 12.
“It’s just how we play – we feed the ball inside,” said Swanigan, who finished with 24 points and 15 rebounds. “We don’t go to get fouled, we go to score the ball. It’s just hard to play in the post. It’s the hardest place to play defense, because you’re already close to the basket. And we try to take advantage of that.”
Both 6-6 Goins and 6-8 Ward had to play passive defense after getting their third fouls. Goins landed his fourth with 15:53 left, then fouled out with 5:42 remaining. Ward got his fourth with 15:02 to play and then took the bench after his fifth foul with 8:19 remaining.
“I can’t play defense how you want to play defense,” Ward said. “You can’t play physical. I had to let them get position or else I’d foul out right then and there. I tried to sustain it as well as I could.”
Haas had his way in Purdue’s knockout stretch, scoring six straight at one point and getting 10 of his 18 points in the final half. Swanigan had 13 points and nine rebounds in the final 20 minutes.
“We’re just not big and strong enough,” Izzo said, expressing his frustration with the displacement rule in the post and adding “the veterans took care of young guys.”
MSU’s next two games are at Breslin Center, their final two home games of the year. The Spartans host Nebraska on Thursday (7 p.m./ESPNU).
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.