Couch: 3 quick takes on Michigan State women’s basketball’s 74-68 win over USC

1. After a wobbly minute, MSU’s women’s basketball team shows some mettle against USC

EAST LANSING — The worst stretch of basketball the Spartans played Thursday night turned into the sort of proof of mettle Michigan State’s women’s basketball will need over the next two months.

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Let’s be clear: Giving up 10 straight points in 41 seconds and turning the ball over four times in 47 seconds is not the formula for success in a relentlessly unkind Big Ten.

But the wheels didn’t fall off, even if Robyn Fralick admitted she should have called a timeout before MSU’s 12-point lead had been slashed to two by a ferocious and sudden USC full-court press.

What transpired next and down the stretch of the Spartans’ 74-68 win over USC on Thursday night is the reason you might be seeing MSU at Breslin Center in the NCAA tournament and, perhaps, in the Sweet 16 for the first time in 17 years.

The 18-2 Spartans (7-2 Big Ten), who are No. 9 in the NET rankings, picked up their fifth Quad 1 win Tuesday night. They’re 5-1 in Quad 1 games and 3-1 against Quad 2 opponents. That’s the resume of a top four-seed in the NCAA tournament, which comes with hosting the first two rounds. That’s been the goal since last summer.

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This MSU team can take a punch, gather itself and finish with grit. We’ve seen that repeatedly now, even if not always to the extremes we saw Thursday. But that’s how the Spartans beat USC — once the Trojans turned a 66-54 deficit into a two-point game in the blink of an eye.

MORE: Michigan State women’s basketball holds off USC to remain perfect at home

“I feel like we (usually) do a good job of handling pressure,” Fralick said of MSU’s press break. “And for whatever reason, we’ve just sort of freaked out.”

And then settled down and bore down, beginning with an offensive rebound by Grace VanSlooten with 2:22 remaining that Fralick described as the play of game. That led to a Kennedy Blair driving bucket while she was being fouled, which, after Blair’s free throw, put the Spartans ahead 69-64.

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Just as game-deciding: MSU’s six stops in seven USC possessions after the Trojans cut the deficit to 66-64. USC’s only point the rest of the way — other than a banked-in 3-pointer in the final seconds — was a single free throw. MSU blocked two shots (by Ines Sotelo and Emma Shumate) and came up with three steals (by Rashunda Jones, Sotelo and VanSlooten) during that seven-possession stand. In all, USC turned the ball over 24 times Thursday, with MSU’s defense contributing to a chunk of them.

MSU’s schedule only gets tougher from here. After a trip to Purdue next Thursday, the Spartans host Michigan (No. 6 in the NET), Maryland (14) and UCLA (2), before a trip to Michigan, with a game at Penn State the only break, relatively speaking, on a slate of opponents rated higher than anyone the Spartans have faced yet.

2. ‘Fire and Ice’ Part II, 30 years later

You might never see two more contrasting on-court personalities in one backcourt than MSU’s Kennedy Blair and Rashunda Jones. Fralick described them as “Fire and Ice” on Thursday. Fralick has some credibility with that nickname at MSU. She grew up attending MSU games and was a teenager when the original “Fire and Ice”, Shawn Respert and Eric Snow, were a backcourt tandem at MSU in the 1990s. The Respert-Snow “Fire and Ice” label was offense/defense-based. This one is personality-driven.

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“I think they’re really complementary,” Fralick said. “Rashunda is really pretty calm and a bring-the-team-together (person). Kennedy is spirit and energy and instinct. And I think, together, they just have been really complementary. They both have an ability to create, play on the ball, play off the ball, get other people open, finish at the basket. They really help each other out.”

That includes being the voice the other needs to hear sometimes.

When Jones missed a late free throw, Blair was the reassuring presence. Usually it’s Jones that calms Blair, who is one of the more talkative players you’ll see. She talks to everyone — opponents at the free-throw line, refs, her friends in the stands, herself maybe.

“I don’t know who she’s talking to,” Fralick joked.

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Often it’s her sizable contingent of friends yelling in the stands.

“I mean, I just like to talk,” Blair said. “I feel like when I take stuff too seriously and I think about stuff, I don’t play well.”

She and Jones, whose nickname is “Spider”, were really good at times Thursday. Blair finished with 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting, with six rebounds, five steals, two assists and three turnovers. Jones had 16 points, two assists, two rebounds, two steals and three turnovers. She also had a massive 3-pointer late in the game.

They’re an effective pairing. But total opposites in how they carry themselves.

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3. Sotelo’s impact is increasing

Sophomore forward Ines Sotelo missed several months and 10 games with a foot injury, slowing what might have been a breakout season for her. It might be starting to happen now.

Sotelo was active and effective on both ends Thursday, with 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting, seven rebounds, three steals and two blocks in 36 minutes. MSU was 14 points better than USC with her on the court. The only other MSU player with a plus-minus better than plus-four, was Emma Shumate, who was plus-18 in 31 minutes.

Sotelo showed skill scoring on the block offensively, but, most importantly, she was a force defensively. A lot of that was part of MSU’s press. She was aggressive and anticipatory in getting her hands on steals. And guarding the inbound, she was a pest, including bothering one inbounds play late that helped Grace VanSlooten come up with a critical steal.

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“The whole reason we have her on the ball is just because she’s so long and she can cause problems like that,” VanSlooten said. “And she gets tips all the time, too.”

This MSU team has a lot of good players who, for the purposes of this season, likely are who they will be (or close to it). No one likely has a higher ceiling still to reach over the next two months than Sotelo.

“We’ve been challenging her because we know what she’s capable of, and we know how much she helps our team when she’s competing at that level,” Fralick said. “We’ve been pressing on that. And I thought (Wednesday), she had her best practice that she’s had all year since coming back, and it transferred (to the game).

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“She was incredible. She was on both sides of the ball. And we’re going to build on this from here. This was really encouraging to see her play at that sort of level of intensity.”

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @GrahamCouch.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU women’s basketball holds off USC: 3 quick takes