Ager Enjoys Turnaround Game
1/19/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 19, 2005
By LARRY LAGE
AP Sports Writer
Maurice Ager bounced back from what he said was his worst game at Michigan State with one of his best.
Ager scored 22 points Tuesday night in a win over Purdue, and the junior shooting guard came through when the 19th-ranked Spartans needed him most.
"Mo's got this ability, if he gets on a roll, he can string some shots together," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.
When the Boilermakers rallied from a 13-point deficit to trail by only one point with 9:16 left, Ager started a scoring barrage with a steal and a dunk.
"That was very, very, very key," said teammate Shannon Brown, who scored a career-high 20 points against Purdue. "Then, he really got going. He hit some 3s that were unconscious."
Ager scored 17 of Michigan State's 22 points over 7:15 on the dunk, three 3-pointers, four free throws and a pull-up jumper.
"He really beat us at the end," Purdue coach Gene Keady said.
Ager was hard on himself after Michigan State blew an eight-point lead in the final 1:55 Sunday at Wisconsin because he scored just two points on 1-of-8 shooting and didn't have an assist.
The former Detroit Crockett High School star couldn't wait to redeem himself.
"As a player, you have to be able to bounce back from situations that are tough," Ager said. "Coach (Izzo) really helped me through it. We talked. That's the type of coach he is. He's not going to beat you up."
The Spartans were widely criticized after the loss at Wisconsin, and Ager said it motivated them.
"If you have any type of courage, you want to prove people wrong," he said.
The Spartans (11-3, 3-1 Big Ten) will be going for their ninth win in 10 games Saturday afternoon at Minnesota (12-4, 2-1) before hosting Michigan next week.
Ager showed flashes of promise during his first two seasons, such as a career-high 24-point performance last year against Northwestern. But he averaged just 8.5 points as a sophomore and 6.7 as a freshman while shooting 39.2 percent.
This year, he has been consistent enough to average a team-high 13.9 points on 48.4-percent shooting overall and 44.8 behind the 3-point line.
Though Ager and Brown led the Spartans in scoring, their defense also was key to the victory.
"We both have come so far defensively," Ager said. "When we first got here, we were horrible defensive players."
When the Spartans were in danger of losing their lead Tuesday, Izzo called a series of plays designed to get shots for Ager despite seeing him look sluggish while scoring just three points in the first half.
"We hung in with him and went to him," Izzo said.
It was just the situation Ager has been preparing for.
"As a player, I think about that a lot," he said. "Even when I'm shooting by myself, I put myself in the position by saying, 'What if this is the last shot in the game?' I just want to make those plays for my team."
