Two teams trying to stop losing lines meet in East Lansing, Mich., On Saturday afternoon when No. 9 Michigan State is hosted for Oregon.
The Spartans (18-4, 9-2 Big Ten) bring a perfect 11-0 home record in the game despite Back-to-back losses in Los Angeles to Southern California on Saturday and Ucla on Tuesday.
Prior to the defeat, Michigan State had a 13-match winning line that covered all December and January. The Spartans had not previously lost consecutive matches this season.
A key for Oregon is likely to be a strong defense. Michigan State got a season-low 61 points on UCLA, and the Spartans are 1-4 when they got fewer than 70 points. They also dragged on half of all four losses.
Michigan State is led by Jaden Akins with 13.5 points per match, the only player in double numbers. Jaxon Kohler is the best rebounder of 7.6 per match.
The Spartans have struggled with 3-point shooting, which has only made 28.7 percent of the trials.
Turnments were also a question against UCLA, as the Spartans turned the ball over 16 times but lost by only two points, 63-61.
“We turn the ball in ways we don’t have all year, just stupid things,” Center Carson Cooper told the Detroit Free Press. “And we are all guilty of it. Throw the ball out of bounds and just wrong and all this.”
Oregon has bigger problems. The ducks (16-7, 5-7) have dropped four straight, with one against a top 25 team, no. 24 Michigan on Wednesday. Three of the losses have been close, but Oregon has been forced to play far behind to get back to play.
The ducks were as high as No. 9 in the ranking, but they have fallen out of the top 25 with leading goal scores Nate Bitt (12.7 ppg) on average only 8.3 points over the losing line. Bittle scored 16 points in the loss 80-76 in Michigan.
Slow starts on crime, missed defensive rotations and four straight games that shoot less than 46 percent from the field have damaged the ducks.
“We have reduced it to a six -week season here if we are not careful, and we have to get better,” said coach Dana Altman.
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