Team Effort Pushes No. 13 Michigan State Past Purdue, 86-65, Thursday

Thursday, January 29

West Lafayette, Ind.

6 PM

Michigan State University

19-2,8-2Big Ten

Purdue

11-10,3-7Big Ten

Michigan St.

Purdue

Photo by: MSU Athletic Communications

Team Effort Pushes No. 13 Michigan State Past Purdue, 86-65, Thursday

1/29/2026 9:21:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score MSU 86, PUR 65 25-26 WBB Combined Stats

The Spartans improve to program-best 19-2 record with four players netting double figures, led by VanSlooten’s 17 points.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- With all 11 players that got in the game scoring, No. 13 Michigan State women's basketball defeated Purdue, 86-65, at Mackey Arena Thursday night.

Michigan State has now won two-straight games, improving to a program-best 19-2 record overall and 8-2 in Big Ten action, which is MSU's best conference record since 1996-97, when also going 8-2 through 10 league contests. Purdue falls to 11-10 overall 3-6 in Big Ten play. The Spartans improved to 9-2 in games away from home, including 5-2 in true road games, while the Boilermakers also slid to 10-3 at home this season.

MSU beat Purdue for the fourth-straight match-up under head coach Robyn Fralick, who celebrated her birthday on Thursday in grand style with the Victory for MSU. Overall, the Spartans have beaten the Boilermakers in five of the last six and seven of the last nine match-ups, moving to 21-10 since 2009, and Michigan State trimmed Purdue's overall series lead to 44-41. Thursday was also MSU's fifth-straight win in West Lafayette.

The Spartans had four players in double figures led by 17 points and eight rebounds from senior forward Grace VanSlooten. Redshirt-sophomore guard Kennedy Blair scored 15 points with eight boards and seven assists, along with tying her career-high five steals for the secon-straight game. Sophomore forward Inés Sotelo added 12, while senior guard Jalyn Brown scored 11. Michigan State won the battle of the boards, 40-30.

Purdue's Avery Gordon led all scorers with 20 points.

Both teams started hot, with the Spartans taking an early 11-7 lead after a Blair bucket. Michigan State used a 6-0 run over 1:17 to jump ahead by a palindromic 21-12. MSU's first double-digit lead came after a Brown layup just moments later to increase its advantage to 23-12. The Spartan defense kept the Boilermakers off the scoreboard for 3:58 until a 3-pointer from Hila Karsh. MSU forced eight turnovers in the first period. Michigan State had a 12-0 run late in the quarter on the way to a 29-15 lead at the end of the stanza and didn't look back.

In the second quarter, MSU kept Purdue off the scoreboard for 2:57 to take a 38-18 lead. The Spartans out-scored the Boilermakers, 21-8, in the second quarter. Michigan State used a balanced attack in the second stanza led by four points each by Blair, senior forward Marah Dykstra and sophomore forward Juliann Woodard, on the way to stretching its advantage to 50-23 at intermission.

MSU's 29 first-quarter points and the 50 points in the first half were both the most scored by the Spartans in a Big Ten game this season.

Michigan State started the third period with back-to-back steals from VanSlooten. The Spartans scored six-straight to take a 67-31 advantage with less than four minutes left in the period on a 3-pointer by senior guard Emma Shumate. Less than a minute later, a pair of VanSlooten free throws gave the visiting Spartans their largest lead of the night at 38 at 69-31 with 3:04 left in the third. It was the first of three 38-point leads that MSU had the rest of the quarter, holding a 73-40 lead at the end of the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Purdue chipped into the MSU lead, scoring six-straight to make it an 80-50 game with 4:44 remaining. The home-standing Boilermakers made a pair of free throws with 1:28 to go to close to 83-58, but Dykstra netted a 3-pointer on the Spartans' ensuing possession to cap the visitor's scoring and ice the Victory for MSU.

The Spartans will now host No. 9 Michigan on Sunday, Feb. 1 at 12 p.m. at the Breslin Center in the "Go Green, Wear Green" game. The game will be telecast on FS1.

Michigan State Post-Game Notes: at Purdue

• No. 13/13 Michigan State improved to 19-2 overall on the season, which is the Spartans' best record in program history, bettering the 2010-11 squad, when MSU was 18-3 through the first 21 games of the season.

• MSU also improved to 8-2 in B1G action, which is also the top conference ledger since 1996-97 when MSU was 8-2 through 10 league games.

• Thursday was MSU's second road game out of the last three contests as part of the fifth time out of the eight games in January . . . Michigan State has played away from home in 11 of out of the last 15 games . . . the Spartans are now 5-2 in road games to go with unbeaten both at home and on neutral courts, going 10-0 at home and 4-0 in neutral contests.

• MSU's 86 points was the first time scoring 80 or more points in the last four games, after being held under 80 in the previous three games, but it is the fifth time in the eight games in January that the Spartans scored 80 or more points . . . overall it is the 14th time with 80+ points and the Spartans improved to 14-0 when hanging 80 or more points on the scoreboard, compared to 5-2 when being held under 80 points.

• Michigan State beat Purdue for the fourth-straight match-up under head coach Robyn Fralick, who celebrated her birthday on Thursday in grand style with the Victory for MSU . . . Overall, the Spartans have beaten the Boilermakers in five of the last six and seven of the last nine match-ups, moving to 21-10 since 2009 . . . MSU trimmed Purdue's overall series lead to 44-41 . . . Thursday was also MSU's fifth-straight win in West Lafayette.

• Thursday night's game was nationally televised on Big Ten Network, and the Spartans are now 5-2 in games played on BTN . . . Thursday was the fourth and final of MSU's four-straight games played on BTN . . . MSU's wraps up its season-long streak of five-consecutive games played on national television next time out, on Sunday at home vs. in-state rival Michigan, which will be nationally televised on FS1.

• Michigan State started the same starting five for the seventh-straight game and eighth total time, with the feature five of junior guard Rashunda Jones, sophomore center Ines Sotelo, senior forward Grace VanSlooten, redshirt-sophomore guard Kennedy Blair and senior guard Jalyn Brown . . . it marks the Spartans' fifth different starting line-up of the season . . . Michigan State is now 7-1 with that starting five.

• Senior forward Grace VanSlooten, junior guard Rashunda Jones and redshirt-sophomore guard Kennedy Blair all made their 21st-consecutive starts, remaining the only three Spartans to start all 21 contests.

• Michigan State scored first and MSU is now 17-1 when opening the scoring, as the Spartans got off to a 13-7 lead and had a 12-0 run on the way to a 27-12 lead and had a 29-15 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

• The Spartans netted 29 points in the first quarter, for their most in a Big Ten game this season, topping the previous most points in the opening quarter of a league game from 24 vs. both Nebraska (1/15/26) and last time out vs. USC (1/22/26).

• MSU's 29 first-quarter points was the fourth-most in the opening stanza of the season, behind season-high 36 in the season-opener vs. Mercyhurst 11/4/25), 34 vs. Indiana State (12/21/25) and 31 vs. Western Michigan (11/16/25).

• Michigan State went on to net 50 points in the first half, which were the Spartans' most points in a first half of a Big Ten game, bettering the previous top mark of 44 points, done twice before with at home vs. Illinois (1/4/26) and at Oregon (1/11/26) . . . overall, it is MSU's fourth game with 50 or more points in the first half, behind 66 vs. Mercyhurst 11/4/25), 59 vs. Indiana State (12/21/25) and 53 vs. Oakland (11/23/25).

• The Spartans netted 50.8 percent (32-of-63) field goal shooting . . . it marked MSU's fourth time shooting 50.0 percent or better in a Big Ten game, as part of the 12th total time this season that the Spartans have made at least half of their field goals.

• Michigan State made seven 3-pointers on Thursday, the most by the Spartans in the last four games since making 10 triples at Oregon (1/11/26) . . . it was the third time that MSU has made seven or more treys in a B1G game as part of the 11th game with seven or more 3-pointers on the season.

• Four Spartans scored in double-figures, led by senior forward Grace VanSlooten's 17 points, followed by redshirt-junior guard Kennedy Blair with 15 points, sophomore forward Ines Sotelo's 12 points and senior guard Jalyn Brown with 11 points.

• After having three players in double-figures for the previous two games, the Spartans had four players in double-figure scoring Thursday night for back-to-back games with four players with 10+ points . . . Thursday marked the seventh overall time this season that four Spartans scored 10+ points, moving to 7-0 when four score in double-digits.

• Michigan State entered Thursday ranked second in the B1G and 16th in the NCAA in steals per game at 12.4 and MSU was right at that average with 12 swipes Thursday . . . it was the Spartans' third-straight game with 10+ steals, as part of the fifth time in the last six games . . . overall, it was Michigan State's 14th overall time this season out of the 21 total games with double-digit steals.

• MSU improved to 6-0 on Thursday's, its second-most played day of the week behind 10 games on Sunday, going 8-2, with both losses of the season coming on a Sunday.

• Michigan State is now 12-1 in night games . . . MSU also finished 7-1 in games played in January, its second-most wins in a month this season behind going 8-0 in November.

• Senior forward Grace VanSlooten netted 17 points to lead MSU in scoring, marking the seventh time this season that she has led or shared the team lead in scoring, as MSU is now 6-1 when VanSlooten is top scorer.

• VanSlooten tallied 17 points and eight rebounds in Thursday's game . . . VanSlooten now has 138 points and 67 rebounds in the last eight contests, since being held to eight points and four rebounds vs. Rutgers (12/28/25) . . . VanSlooten is averaging 17.3 points and 8.4 rebounds per game over the last eight outings.

• With VanSlooten's 17 points Thursday, she has registered double-digit points for the 19th time out of the 21 games this season . . . she now has tallied 10+ points in 38 of the last 41 games . . . she now has logged double-digits in 48 of 52 total games played as a Spartans, being held to single digits twice this season and twice last season, and also missing one game last season due to illness.

• Thursday's 17 points was VanSlooten's 103rd game of her collegiate career logging double-digits, and she's now scored in double-figures in 103 out of the 115 career games, logging 10+ points in 55 games during her time at Oregon.

• With the eight rebounds, VanSlooten has snared seven or more boards in each of the last three games . . . VanSlooten has pulled down five of more boards 14 times out of the 21 games this season, including doing so in seven of the last eight contests and eight of the last 10.

• VanSlooten also swiped three steals, marking the third-straight game with multiple steals, and the fourth in the last six games, as part of the 11th total time this season.

• Redshirt-junior guard Kennedy Blair netted 15 points, including eight in the first quarter and added a bucket early in the second quarter to reach double-figures for the second game in a row after being held to a season-low tying four points at Iowa (1/18/26), snapping her career-long streak of six-straight games with 10+ points.

• With her 15 points, Blair has posted double-figures in eight of the last nine games, as part of 12 of the last 14 games . . . overall, it was Blair's 15th game this season with 10+ points and 19th of her career.

• Blair also pulled down a team-high tying eight rebounds, marking the 14th-straight game that she snared five or more boards, as part of the 18th time out of the 21 games in doing so.

• Blair also swiped a game-high five steals, tying her career-high for the second game in a row, matching the five steals vs. USC (1/22/26) . . . along with 10 steals in the last two games, Blair also has 16 steals in the last five games, with multiple steals in four of those five outings . . . overall, Thursday's five steals was Blair's 11th game this season with two or more steals.

• Sophomore forward Ines Sotelo netted 12 points to register in double-figure scoring for the second-straight game as part of the third time this season, with 12 points each time, tying her season-high for the third time this season . . . Sotelo posted 10+ points for the 10th time of her career.

• Sotelo netted one 3-pointer for the fourth game in a row and posting her fifth game with one triple.

• Sotelo also had one blocked shot, marking her eighth block in the last seven games as part of the ninth total block on the season.

• Senior guard Jalyn Brown logged 11 points for her second double-figure outing in the last three games as part of the third in last five games and the 10th total time this season.

• Senior guard Emma Shumate netted three 3-pointers Thursday . . . after not making a 3-pointer last time out vs. USC, Shumate got back on track with a trey in the second quarter Thursday, as Shumate is yet to go back-to-back games without a triple . . . Shumate now has made at least one triple in 18 of the 21 games this season.

• Shumate finished with three 3-pointers, marking her 14th game with multiple triples, but her first in the last four games, being held to one or less 3-pointers in the previous three games, which came on the heels of five-straight games with multiple treys.

• With three 3-pointers Thursday night, Shumate now has 44 triples on the season as part of 48 total field goals . . . Shumate's 44 3-pointers this season ties her most in a season for her career, matching the 44 treys last season . . . Shumate now has 88 3-pointers during her two-year Spartan career and 128 total 3-pointers in her collegiate career after 40 during her two seasons at Ohio State.

• Shumate went without a block for the first time in the last eight games, having her season-long streak of seven-straight games with a block halted . . . Shumate still has 14 blocks on the season out of the 21 games.