Second-half surge pushes Spartans past Bowling Green

It seems it's becoming a regular occurrence when the MSU hoops team faces a lesser opponent at Breslin: an ugly first half followed by a fairly-dominating second half.

Bowling Green was the victim this time, as MSU won its ninth straight, this one by a 74-60 score.

Without the Izzone in the crowd, the Spartans were as sluggish as the fans in the first half. MSU didn't turn the ball over much, but the Falcons were all over the boards early. A pair of free throws from Nix with a second left gave MSU a 35-33 at half.

Spartans racking up high numbers of steals

This story originally appeared on MLive.com.

Tom Izzo's teams have always been some of the best defensive teams in the country.

But one of the few defense stats — steals — has never been a strong point of the Spartans. Over the previous 10 seasons, the highest MSU ranked in steals was 100th, in 2004-05, with 7.8 steals per game.

Ten games into this season, the Spartans have had very active hands, as MSU is ranked 39th in the country with 8.8 steals per game.