EAST LANSING — Welcome to the Big Ten, Washington.

Michigan State basketball rolled out the red carpet Tom Izzo-style, with one of the most concise displays of his principles of basketball, looking every bit like the Izzone alumni in the stands remembered from the program’s embryonic era.

A defense that smothered from the outset. An offense that ran in transition and elevated the electricity. Rebounding in punishing fashion.

In short, a physical assertion of everything No. 14 MSU has been about for three decades, and a completely possessed performance obsessed with the details — a swagger-flashing, muscle-flexing, all-around 88-54 domination of the Huskies on Thursday night.

“The last two games, I think what we learned about ourselves is just the toughness of this team,” said freshman guard Jase Richardson, who had 12 points and five of the Spartans’ 10 steals and two of their six blocked shots. “We battled in that Ohio State game. And then today, I felt like our toughness kind of overpowered (the Huskies).”

ON THE GRIDIRON: Michigan State football lands Division II transfer WR Rodney Bullard from Valdosta State

The Spartans (13-2, 4-0 Big Ten) won their eighth straight game and held Washington (10- 6, 1-4) without a field goal for more than 10 minutes to open the game and then scoreless for another nine-plus minute stretch after an early free throw. Their lead grew to as many as 29 points by halftime thanks to continued well-rounded scoring and smothering team defense, moving Izzo to 347 victories in Big Ten play, second-most all-time and six behind Bob Knight’s record 353 at Indiana.   

Jaden Akins led the Spartans with 20 points on 8-for-13 shooting, with Jeremy Fears Jr. adding 12 points and 10 assists for his first career double-double and Tre Holloman scoring 11 points with six more of their 24 assists on 32 made baskets. Along with Richardson, the four guards also turned it over just four times between them.

MSU outscored Washington 28-2 on the fastbreak and shot a sizzling 52.5% as all 10 regulars scored; 12 of the 13 players in green and white who stepped on the court grabbed at least one rebound. The Spartans also hit 7 of 21 3-point attempts and committed just 12 turnovers.

“I thought we we played awfully well,” Izzo said. “We stayed focused. … Yeah, I did see it in their eyes. That was, it was fun to see that.”

MSU travels to Northwestern for its third road game of the conference season. Tipoff is noon Sunday (Fox) at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Illinois.

Tyler Harris had 14 points for for the Huskies (10-5, 1-3), who shot just 32.7% and committed 15 turnovers. MSU held leading scorer and rebounder Great Osobor to just six points on 0-for-8 shooting with just four rebounds as the Huskies were outrebounded, 40-30.

Huskies just dog-gone confounded

Izzo’s players took the court before the game wearing new “Strength in Numbers” warmup shirts. Then they delivered a “dialed-in” look and performance that Izzo said started to emerge in practice Wednesday.

Everything the Spartans showed in the first 20 minutes is everything Izzo has demanded from his teams for 30 years. So much of it that the game felt in the win column in the first seven minutes.

Nothing Washington could do went right, including, at one point, Washington’s “Zoom” Diallo slamming into teammate Mekhi Mason at the top of the key on offense with no MSU player within 2 feet of the collision. Huskies first-year coach Danny Sprinkle spun toward his bench and shook his head in frustration and disgust.

After Osobor’s free throw opened the scoring, MSU ripped off the next 16 points, starting with a Fears 3-pointer and another by Akins. A Coen Carr breakaway dunk in transition prompted Sprinkle to call a timeout as the alumni Izzone erupted into a cacophonous din of celebration.

The Huskies went scoreless for 9:10 and played the first 10:27 without making a field goal. And the rout was on.

“Just trying to slow the momentum,” Sprinkle said of his timeout. “I mean, the game was actually kind of a little bit out of reach, even at that point.”

From 16-1, when Washington finally made a basket and scored three straight points, the Spartans pushed it to 29-8 thanks to a strong stretch that included contributions from two fairly forgotten faces — a 3-pointer from struggling Frankie Fidler and strong defense and four free throws from Carson Cooper.

By halftime, things started to get really out of hand.

MSU danced and smiled its way into halftime with a 42-13 cushion by holding the Huskies to 5-for-29 shooting and without a 3-pointer in nine attempts. The Spartans turned eight Washington turnovers into nine points and had a 25-19 rebounding edge, as well as a 20-10 scoring edge in the paint while shooting 45.2%.

There wasn’t much to say in the locker room, and it might have been one of the shortest talks in Izzo’s tenure. The players came bouncing back onto the court with more than five minutes to get in shots. And they maintained the same locked-in intensity and pushed it to a 37-point lead a little over four minutes into the second half and led by as many as 41 before Izzo summoned his deep-bench reserves.

Izzo’s truncated halftime message?

“To keep it rolling,” said Akins, who went 8-for-13. “Whatever we do, keep our foot on the gas keep it rolling. And that’s what we did.”

A green-and-white party

Perhaps most importantly was the confidence with which MSU played. It was a bravado his best teams showed in abundance and something that has been lacking in recent years, maybe longer.

Fears got in the head of Washington’s young point guard, with a dose of trash-talking and watching the Huskies freshman in foul trouble. In doing so, that allowed the Spartans’ redshirt freshman to dictate the tone of the toughness and the pace of play all night.

Coen Carr shook off a hard foul that prevented him launching for a dunk in transition early in the first half, nearly getting tackled, only to pogo-stick and hammer one down in transition after a poke-away steal by Booker and feed from Richardson.

Richardson continued to show moxie beyond his freshman year, with his father Jason in the stands seeing a slaughtering not unlike his 2000 national championship team’s 114-63 blowout nearly 25 years ago on the same court. 

“Our competitive spirit wasn’t there tonight, our physicality and our toughness,” Sprinkle said. “And in order to play against Michigan State, you know what their program is built on. We knew what we’re coming into as a staff, we tried to convey that to the players. And obviously, we didn’t do a good enough job of doing that.”

Everyone took a turn going on runs, including Holloman, who also had six assists. Jaxon Kohler had six points, seven rebounds and four more assists. Cooper finished with six points and seven boards, while Carr grabbed five rebounds. The Spartans went 17-for-18 at the free-throw line, finished with a 44-26 edge in paint points and got 37 points from their reserves.

Even Nick Sanders gave the alumni in the Izzone one more thing to get loud about before their belated bedtime, sinking a jumper to seal it with a minute to play, a thorough thrashing complete.

“We still got a long way to go. I mean, it was one of those nights tonight,” Izzo said. “But this team is getting better —the camaraderie, the fastbreak, the strength in numbers, the constantly coming at you. There’s some pluses to that right now.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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