Shay Colley's near triple-double keeps Michigan State women's basketball unbeaten

EAST LANSING - Shay Colley spent her offseason boosting her game on the court while representing Team Canada in international competition.

Now that she’s back on campus, the junior guard is back to making a big mark on the court for the Michigan State women’s basketball team.

The preseason all-Big Ten selection has put together a strong start to her season and that continued Sunday afternoon as she helped the Spartans to a victory over Wright State.

Colley had a season-high 21 points and added nine assists and eight rebounds for MSU in its 84-68 victory over Wright State at Breslin Center.

Colley was 8 of 12 from the field and the Spartans outscored the Raiders by 25 with her on the court.

"That’s Shay,” MSU coach Suzy Merchant said. “She can really affect the stat sheet in a lot of ways. She did it on 12 shots too. That’s the other thing. Some kids are triple-doubles and they have take 25 or 30 (shots) and everybody knows they are jacking up shots. Shay plays within the flow, she knows the system. She does a really good job scoring the ball a lot of different ways. She’s a very good rebounding guard. She can always get us a defensive rebound for sure and an offensive rebound here or there. I feel consistently she can do that.

"It was kind of fun to see her be able affect the stat sheet in more than just points and rebounds and kind of add that three-man that’s a point guard. That’s not a bad problem to have."

Colley was one of four players to score in double figures for the Spartans, who are 3-0 heading into their upcoming trip to Mexico where they will face over No. 17-ranked North Carolina State and Kennesaw State in the Cancun Challenge on Thursday and Friday.

Jenna Allen added 17 points and six rebounds, Taryn McCutcheon scored 15 and freshman Nia Clouden had 10 points for MSU.

"We're playing together more, playing faster and then on the defensive end we're helping each other and being in our gaps as coach emphasizes every day in practice," said Colley, who is averaging 14 points, 7.6 rebounds and 5.3 assists. "It's coming along and we're playing together well."

McCutcheon heats up late to help Spartans pull away

MSU led by just 10 in the early stages of the fourth quarter before McCutcheon helped the Spartans push their lead to 22.

After going 1-for-5 from the field in the opening half, McCutcheon made three of her four shots after halftime. The three makes were all 3-pointers in the fourth quarter that gave MSU a boost.

McCutcheon felt like her staying on the attack despite not shooting well early was a sign of her growth. 

Merchant agreed and thought the baskets from the junior guard were important.

"This is a team and that's where our leadership and maturity and some of those kids really got to step up," Merchant said. Sometimes we get that lead and then we get a little bored and there's a couple possessions where we let them score and we might have turned it over and now instead of being 25 or 30 (point lead), it's 13, 11, 10 or something like that.

"To have Taryn step up there with confidence, because she really didn't shoot that ball well in the first half, (was good). I told her it was really good to see her take that ball and say enough is enough. She can really, really shoot it (and she stepped) up there."

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