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Michigan Basketball (15-4, 4-2 B1G) had a tough act to follow after losing to Purdue the other night, but found a way to get it done — and do so emphatically — on the road at No. 4 Michigan State (16-3, 4-2 B1G) on Saturday afternoon.
The effort was led by Moritz Wagner, who played the game of his career with 27 points, a personal-best. Zavier Simpson and Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman had 16 and 14 points of their own, respectively.
Michigan State was led by 19 points from Jaren Jackson Jr., most of which came from the free throw line on 10-of-13 shooting. Miles Bridges also had 19 points.
The Spartans went into the locker room with a 37-34 lead at halftime before Michigan came out of the locker room and scored 48 points in the second half to win going away. It was close throughout most of the second half until the Wolverines pulled away in the final minutes.
Unfortunately, these two rivals will not meet again in the regular season, so they will have to wait until the Big Ten Tournament to potentially cross paths.
The Wolverines finished the toughest two-game stretch of their schedule 1-1, which bodes well for their tournament resume moving forward.
Their next opponent is Maryland, who comes to Ann Arbor for a 6:30 p.m. tip on Monday.