No. 12 Michigan State aims to pick up steam vs. Northwestern

Monday was the bounce-back game for which No. 12 Michigan State was looking.

Now, the Spartans will hope to continue their momentum and further take advantage of a three-game homestand when they host Northwestern on Thursday in East Lansing, Mich.

Michigan State should enter feeling good about itself again following an 80-51 rout at home of Southern California on Monday, which came after a tough two-point loss at No. 10 Nebraska last Friday.

This is the Spartans' (13-2, 3-1 Big Ten) only regular-season meeting of the season against Northwestern (8-6, 0-3).

In particular, Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo had reason to smile on Monday over the play of junior forward Coen Carr.

Carr led all scorers with 18 points, recovering from a game at Nebraska in which he finished with two points. If the ultra-athletic Carr can provide more consistent efforts, it could take Michigan State to a new level.

"When he started backing them in and getting to his game, and then he hit a mid-range, and then he hit a 3, it was big for Coen," Izzo said. "He didn't quite playing defense, he didn't quit rebounding. In fact, he rebounded the ball better than he's been. It might be frustrating to some. I was really proud of him and [how] he handled it and what he did."

Carr is tied with Jeremy Fears for second on the team in scoring at 11.9 points per game, behind senior Jaxon Kohler (14.2 ppg).

Michigan State continues to excel with outstanding defense, entering the game second in the Big Ten in points allowed at 64.4 points per game.

The next challenge will be against Northwestern, which is coming off an 84-78 home loss to Minnesota on Saturday.

"If we want to win games in this league, we're going to have to get a whole lot tougher, mentally and physically, to put 40 minutes together," Wildcats head coach Chris Collins said.

The good news is that Northwestern might have some confidence going into East Lansing, given the Wildcats have had some recent success against Michigan State, winning four of the last seven meetings between the teams.

Northwestern does feature the leading scorer in the Big Ten, Nick Martinelli, who enters averaging 23.0 points per game and is shooting 58.2% from the field. He also is averaging 6.5 rebounds a game.

Arrinten Page (15.0 ppg.) and Jayden Reid (11.6 ppg.) also are averaging in double figures points, but Northwestern is trying to find some other players to emerge beyond those three.

"It's just little things we have to clean up," Martinelli said. "We can turn it around. There's no reason we can't. We have a ton of good guys, talented guys. We're going to figure out who's going to play to win."

After losing three straight to Northwestern, Michigan State has won the last two contests -- including a 78-68 victory last season in Evanston, Ill.