Michigan State University
13-6, 3-3
Northwestern
15-4, 4-2
Spartans Drop Hard-Fought Battle With Northwestern Tuesday
1/18/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
EVANSTON, Ill. - Despite 25 points from senior guard Tori Jankoska and a double-double from senior guard Branndais Agee, the Michigan State women's basketball team dropped a hard-fought battle with Northwestern, 76-65, Tuesday at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Box Score vs. Northwestern 
The Spartans were playing their second game this season without head coach Suzy Merchant, who took a medical leave of absence. Merchant also didn't coach in the Jan. 4 game at Purdue.
Jankoska had her 11th 20-point game of the season with 25 points, including going 5-for-9 from beyond the arc. She also added eight rebounds and three assists. Agee registered her first double-double of the season and fourth of her career with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Northwestern came out fast, taking a 20-10 lead after the first quarter. The Wildcats shot 53 percent from the field in the first 10 minutes, while MSU struggled with five turnovers.
In the second quarter, Northwestern used an 8-0 run to take a 28-15 lead after a fastbreak layup by Ashley Dreary. Jankoska snapped the run with a three. Freshman guard Taryn McCutcheon and Agee followed to increase the MSU run to 8-0 and cut the Wildcat lead to 28-23. Reimer scored the final four points of the half to trim the gap to 37-36, heading into the locker room.
The Spartans took their first lead of the game, 38-37, with a Jankoska jumper to begin the third quarter. The teams traded leads much of the third quarter, before Northwestern ended the quarter on an 11-3 run to take a 55-48 advantage heading into fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the Spartans used a pair of Jankoska free throws and a triple by Agee to pull within 57-53 with 7:59 to play, but that would be the closest the visitors would get as Northwestern went on a 12-2 spurt and kept MSU at bay for the rest of the game.
With her 25 points, Jankoska now has 1,898 career points, needing 102 to reach the 2,000-career point plateau. Jankoska recently became MSU's career leading scorer, netting her 1,818th point in the Ohio State game on Jan. 11, passing former teammate Aerial Powers (2014-16) at 1,817.
McCutcheon finished with nine points, netting three three-pointers.
Michigan State returns to the friendly confines of the Breslin Center on Sunday, Jan. 22 to take on Purdue for the second time this season. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. ET on the Big Ten Network. The Boilermakers took the first meeting in West Lafayette, 66-54.
Postgame Notes
• Michigan State's defense held Nia Coffey to seven points snapping her double-figure scoring 66-game streak. The last time she scored less than seven points was the last time she didn't score in double figures and that was against Michigan on Jan. 17, 2015. It was the second time in the last three games that the Spartan defense held the opposition's leading scorer well beyond her scoring average. MSU's defense limited Ohio State's Mitchell to a season-low 13 points, which was her fewest points since scoring against UConn in the second game of the 2015-16 season, a span of 52 games.
• In the Big Ten in scoring Kelsey Mitchell and Nia Coffey are first and third, respectively, while Tori Jankoska is number two. Mitchell and Coffey average 22.7 and 20.4 points per game, respectively and Michigan State's defense has held them under both of their scoring averages. MSU's defense held Coffey to 13.4 under her average and it held Mitchell to 13 points which was 8.6 under her average.
• With her 25 points, Jankoska continues to lead the team with 11 20-point games.
• This is the third-straight season the Spartans and the Wildcats have met in the first four games of the conference season. Despite Tuesday's loss, MSU continues to dominate the all-time series, leading 42-25.
• Agee's 12 points was her second double-digit scoring game in the last three outings after her season-high 16 points vs. Ohio State. The senior guard now has four double-figure games this season as part of 37 career outings in double-digit points.
• With seven assists Tuesday, McCutcheon topped the 100 assists mark for the season, now with 102. The seven helpers was her fifth game in the last seven with six or more assists. McCutcheon is now in sixth on the MSU freshman assists list, just four helpers away from tying Kim Archer (1983-84) who had 106. McCutcheon entered Tuesday tied for second among Big Ten freshman in assists per game, averaging 5.4 apg.
• McCutcheon's three triples Tuesday was her fifth game netting three or more behind the arc.
