Spartans seniors play key roles in rout of Wolverines

Ann Arbor — Last week, as Michigan State was busy rolling over Northwestern behind a big night from freshmen Deyonta Davis and Matt McQuaid, coach Tom Izzo was grateful.

He was glad to see his young players start to emerge, but in the next breath he issued a reminder of what it would take for Michigan State to be a great team.

“Freshmen are great,” he said, “but we need our seniors.”

On Saturday at Crisler Center, No. 10 Michigan State’s seniors showed why their coach made that statement. In their final appearance in front of the hostile Ann Arbor crowd, Denzel Valentine, Bryn Forbes and Matt Costello shined in an 89-73 victory.

The game wasn’t nearly as close as the score indicated as the Spartans (20-4, 7-4 Big Ten) led by 30 when Izzo emptied the bench.

By then, the damage had been done by Michigan State’s most experienced players.

Forbes was nearly unstoppable, scoring 29 points, including 23 in the first half, while hitting 8 of 10 from 3-point range. Valentine flirted with a triple-double — again — by scoring 21 points, grabbing nine rebounds and handing out eight assists. And Costello, who is proving to be the emotional heart and soul of this team, scored 14 points and pulled down eight rebounds.

“To say I’m ecstatic about the performance would be underserving what we did,” Izzo said. “I’m just happy at this time of the year we’re making some progress. We’re getting a little better, getting healthier, we got our rotation down a little better.

“But for us, our three seniors won us the game. It was Costello, Forbes and Valentine that came through.”

It was especially fulfilling for Costello and Valentine, who barring a meeting in the postseason finish their careers with a 5-3 mark against the Wolverines, including four straight victories dating to the Big Ten tournament championship game at the end of the 2013-14 season.

“It means a lot,” Valentine said. “To get this win here and then through all the adversity we’ve been having throughout the year. It’s huge to get a win like this on the road against our rival. We definitely came to play with some extra emotion and got after it a little bit.”

It was so big for Costello that he found himself in tears before the game.

As Michigan’s starters were being introduced, Costello was sitting in the dark with tears streaming down his face.

“I just realized it was my last time at Michigan and everything just kind of hit me,” Costello said.

It didn’t take long for the emotion to shift for Costello. His steal and dunk in the second half had him mugging for the national television cameras and thinking about what sort of dunk he might try to pull off.

“I was gonna try a windmill but didn’t want to get stuffed,” Costello joked. “It was gonna be bad.”

And how about the celebration, something Costello is starting to get known for after his lift and spin of Izzo in a victory over Maryland a couple of weeks ago?

“I don’t know what’s going through my mind,” Costello said. “I gotta stop doing that kind of stuff. I get caught up in the moment.”

Spartans fans hope there are plenty more moments like that for not only the seniors, but the entire team. But it will be the play of the trio that will likely carry this team as far as it goes.

Michigan coach John Beilein has seen the growth of Valentine and Costello, in particular, and is impressed.

“Four years they stick in there, they just keep getting better and better and better, and all of a sudden they’ve become really elite players,” Beilein said. “(Valentine) is as good as anybody in the country.”

The celebration won’t last. Michigan State faces an even tougher test on Tuesday when it travels to Purdue.

If the Spartans are to make a late push for the Big Ten title, they’ll need their seniors.

“You look at Iowa’s seniors, Oklahoma’s seniors, Maryland’s seniors, Purdue’s best couple of players are seniors,” Izzo said. “It seems like the teams that are on the top have more senior-laden teams right now. It’s all around the country, North Carolina. Seniors are important, they’re valuable.”

mcharboneau@detroitnews.com

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