Michigan State University
Pennsylvania (Coca-Cola Classic)
Spartans Roll Past Penn, 77-52
11/29/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov 29, 2003
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EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Shannon Brown showed off some fancy moves on his 18th birthday.
Brown had three spectacular dunks and finished with 12 points to help No. 3 Michigan State beat Penn 77-52 on Saturday in the first game of the Spartan Classic.
"I guess the way I scored them takes the momentum away from the other team," said Brown, one of the nation's most-heralded freshmen. "If I'd just laid it up, I think I'd have been booed. So I tried to make it a nice dunk."
Brown's style points didn't appear on the scoreboard, but the Spartans (2-1) appreciated all six of his baskets, his five rebounds in 21 minutes and the contributions of other reserves.
"Hey, he has to get an A-plus on those," said Kevin Torbert, who led Michigan State with 15 points from a new position, power forward. "He had some great dunks in the open court. He had me jumping at the other end."
Michigan State easily overcame a sluggish start against the overmatched Quakers (1-2).
"I think we might have helped them play poorly, and I don't mean that because we were aggressive," Spartans coach Tom Izzo said. "It was a poor start. We were 1-for-9, then 29-for-54 from then on. We might go back to playing `War' (an anything-goes rebounding drill) before the horn starts."
Chris Hill added 13 points, all in the final 21 minutes, and the Spartans gradually took control with a 41-28 rebounding edge and help from 22 Penn turnovers.
 Shannon Brown jams home a bucket on his way to scoring 12 points.  | |
It was the schools' first meeting in 25 seasons, when the Spartans slammed Penn 101-67 in a Final Four semifinal in Salt Lake City.
The Quakers' Tim Begley led all scorers with 17 points.
"We didn't run our offense very well," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "I think you can attribute that to us playing poorly and Michigan State forcing us to play poorly.
"They play a great pressure defense, and it really took us out of our game. They are an excellent basketball team, and we can only get better by playing them."
Izzo wants his team to play better in the championship game against the DePaul-Indiana State winner and knows the Spartans will have to improve to beat visiting Duke on Wednesday in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
