No. 10 Michigan State Hosts Oakland on Friday Night

East Lansing, Mich. – No.10/8 Michigan State plays its final game before Christmas on Friday, Dec. 21, hosting Oakland University at the Breslin Center. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m.

On the Air
The game will air live on BTN, with Cory Provus calling the play-by-play and Shon Morris serving as the color analyst. The Spartan Sports Network radio call can be heard on one of 38 affiliates and on the web at SpartanSportsNetwork.com, with Will Tieman handling the play-by-play and Matt Steigenga serving as the color analyst. The game can also be heard on Sirius, XM and Internet 84.

Records
Michigan State, winners of its last four games and nine of the last 10 overall, enters the game on Sunday with a 9-2 overall record. The Spartans are ranked No. 10 in the country in the Associated Press poll and No. 8 in the USA Today Coaches polls. Oakland, coming off an 81-69 loss at Georgia on Tuesday, has lost three-straight games and is 4-8 overall.

Last Time Out
Junior forward Nick Ward (Gahanna, Ohio/Lincoln) scored a career-high 28 points and No. 9/9 Michigan State scored 64 points in the first half and cruised to a 104-83 win over Green Bay on Sunday … Ward led six players in double figures, scoring 28 points on 12-of-13 shooting from the floor, along with nine rebounds and a season-high four blocked shots … Junior guard Cassius Winston (Detroit, Mich./University of Detroit Jesuit) added 16 points and 12 assists, senior guard Matt McQuaid (Duncanville, Texas/Duncanville) tied his season-high with 12 points and Langford finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists … Freshman forward Gabe Brown (Ypsilanti, Mich./Belleville) scored a career-high 11 points off the bench and freshman guard Foster Loyer (Clarkston, Mich./Clarkston) chipped in 10 points.

About the Spartans

Through 11 games, Ward leads the team with 16.7 points and third on the team with 6.2 rebounds … He is tied for eighth in the Big Ten in scoring and second in the league in field goal percentage (68.0%).
Langford is second on the team in scoring with 16.4 points per game, while adding 3.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists.
Winston is second on the team with 16.1 points per game and leads the team in assists with 7.9 per game ... He leads the Big Ten and ranks No. 4 in the country in assists per game.
Sophomore forward Xavier Tillman (Grand Rapids, Mich./GR Christian) is fourth on the team in scoring with 8.2 points and second with 7.8 rebounds, while redshirt senior Kenny Goins (Troy, Mich./Warren Mott) is sixth on the team in scoring with 6.0 points and leads the team with 9.9 rebounds per game, which ranks No. 22 nationally ...
McQuaid, who played at Florida after missing three games, is averaging 7.4 points, 1.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists ... Redshirt junior Kyle Ahrens (Versailles, Ohio/Versailles), who started four games in place of McQuaid, is averaging 5.7 points and 2.8 rebounds.

The Series

Michigan State and Oakland meet for the 17th time in program history.
The Spartans lead the head-to-head series, 16-0.
This is the sixth-straight year MSU and the Grizzlies are meeting and the 12th time in the last 13 seasons.
Michigan State is 10-0 against Oakland at home.

About Oakland

Oakland enters Friday night's game with a 4-8 overall record following an 81-69 loss at Georgia on Tuesday.
The Golden Grizzlies have lost three-straight games and five of their last six overall, the lone win an 87-86 decision at Fairfield.
Friday night's game at Michigan State is the team's sixth-straight road game, with two more left ... The Golden Grizzlies do not play a home game in the month of December.
Redshirt junior forward Xavier Hill-Mais leads the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging 22.8 points and 6.4 boards per game ... He ranks 19th in the country in scoring.
Redshirt junior guard James Cumberland is second on the team with 16.3 points per game and has hit a team-best 39 3-point field goals.
Freshman guard Braden Norris is third on the team with 9.3 points and leads the team with 5.2 assists ... He ranks 14th in the NCAA in assist-to-turnover ratio.
Oakland is averaging 77.9 points per game and has connected on 46.8 percent of its field goals.
The Golden Grizzlies are tied for No. 8 in the country with 131 3-point field goals made ... They are hitting 10.9 shots from long distance per game (No. 10 nationally).

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Kyle Ahrens

Gabe Brown

Kenny Goins

Foster Loyer

Matt McQuaid

Xavier Tillman Sr.

Nick Ward

Cassius Winston