Second-Half Comeback Sparks No. 13 Spartans Past Penn State

Saturday, February 7

University Park, Pa.

1 PM

Michigan State University

20-4,9-4Big Ten

Penn State

8-16,1-12Big Ten

Michigan St.

Penn St.

Second-Half Comeback Sparks No. 13 Spartans Past Penn State

2/7/2026 4:38:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score MSU 81, PSU 70 25 26 MSU WBB Combined

Michigan State earns its 20th win of the season

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Despite trailing by as many as 16 points in the second quarter, the No. 13 Michigan State women's basketball team battled back to defeat Penn State, 81-70, Saturday afternoon at Rec Hall.

The Spartans halted a two-game losing streak and improved to 20-4 overall and 9-4 in Big Ten play. Michigan State has now reached the 20-point mark in all three seasons under head coach Robyn Fralick. Penn State falls to 8-16 overall and 1-12 in conference play.

The Spartans had four players in double figures led by 20 points and 14 rebounds from senior forward Grace VanSlooten. It was her fifth double-double of the season. Senior guard Jalyn Brown scored 16 points, while junior guard Rashunda Jones added 14 points and five assists. Redshirt-sophomore guard Kennedy Blair scored 12 points with seven boards, despite early foul trouble. Freshman guard Amy Terrian was the true spark plug for MSU going 3-for-5 from long range for nine points off the bench.

Penn State was led by a career-high 37 points from Kiyomi McMiller.

Behind 10 quick points from McMiller, Penn State jumped out to an early 15-9 lead with under six minutes left in the first quarter. The run jumped to 12-0 as the Spartans went 4:01 without scoring. With 16 points in the first period, the Lady Lions led 28-13. VanSlooten and Blair led the way for MSU in the first 10 minutes with four points each.

Michigan State scored the first six of the second period to trim the deficit to 28-19 at the 8:51 mark. As the Spartans hit a cold spell, Penn State used a 6-0 run to re-establish a 39-27 lead with under four minutes left in the half. PSU took its biggest lead of the game 16 points at the 1:32 mark after a pair of McMiller free throws. The Spartans were able to hold the Lady Lions with no field goals for the final 3:05. VanSlooten led MSU with 11 first-half points, as the Spartans trailed 45-33 at the half.

MSU couldn't get going from beyond the arc for much of the game and were unable to tighten the gap. Amy Terrian got MSU going hitting just the Spartans' third trey of the game to make it a single-digit game 52-43. Three-straight Terrian 3-pointers made it a one-point deficit, using a 13-0 run over 3:16. A VanSlooten 3-point play gave MSU its first lead since the seven-minute mark of the first quarter, 54-52. Michigan State ended the quarter on a 16-0 run. MSU out-scored Penn State 21-7 in the period.

Once the Spartans took the lead they never looked back. In the fourth quarter, the Spartans took their first double-digit lead after an old-fashioned 3-pointer from Jones to take a 75-64 lead. Jones scored 12 of her 14 points in the fourth period, including going 7-for-7 from the charity stripe.

Michigan State now returns home to the friendly confines of the Breslin Center to take on No. 2 UCLA on Wednesday, Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. on Peacock.

Michigan State Women's Basketball Post-Game Notes: at Penn State

• Saturday's Spartan win halted MSU's season-long two-game losing streak, and Michigan State has now won back-to-back road games, improving to 6-2 in true road games, along with 10-2 at home and 4-0 on neutral courts.

• With Saturday's 81 points, MSU has topped the 80-point mark for the third time in the last four games as part of the 16th total time hanging 80 or more points on the scoreboard, improving to 15-1 when scoring 80 or more points, compared to 5-3 when being held under 80 points.

• MSU rallied from a 16-point deficit for the win, matching their largest comeback win of the season, also down 16 points in the come-from-behind win at Oregon (1/11/26).

• The Spartans' 16-point deficit came at 45-29 with 1:32 left in the second quarter, and MSU out-scored the Lady Lions by a palindromic 52-25 from that point on, including 48-25 in the second half, for the 81-70 win.

• Michigan State reeled off a 20-0 scoring run spanning the latter half of the third quarter and the first part of the fourth quarter, rallying from down 52-38 after a PSU bucket with 6:26 on the clock, the Spartans then held the Lady Lions scoreless over the next 7:38 of the game, taking a 58-52 lead at the 9:10 mark, before PSU scored with 8:48 left.

• After being just 3-of-20 from 3-point range through two and a half quarters, MSU went 4-of-7 from that point on, getting three 3-pointers from freshman guard Amy Terrian at the end of the third quarter, as the Spartans finished 7-of-27 behind the arc, including 5-of-11 from distance in the second half.

• Saturday's Victory for MSU was the Spartans' fifth-straight win over the Lady Lions . . . MSU is now 3-0 vs. PSU under head coach Robyn Fralick . . . Michigan State has now beaten Penn State in nine of the last 10 meetings, closing PSU's overall lead to 31-27 in the series . . . the Spartans have also won the five match-ups in University Park and now trail, 17-10, in games played on the Lady Lions' home court.

• Saturday's game at Penn State marked Michigan State's first game played on a Saturday this season, and the Spartans have now played at least one game on six of the seven days of the week, with only Tuesday the only day of the week that MSU has yet to play on so far this season.

• Saturday was the sixth game that Michigan State trailed at halftime and MSU is now 3-3 when being down at intermission.

• The Spartans started the same starting five for the 10th game in a row and the 11th overall time this season, 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 8-3 with that starting five.

• Senior forward Grace VanSlooten, junior guard Rashunda Jones and redshirt-sophomore guard Kennedy Blair all made their 24th-consecutive starts, remaining the only three Spartans to start all 24 contests.

• Senior forward Grace VanSlooten registered her fifth double-double of the season with a team-high 20 points and a game-high 14 rebounds . . . it was VanSlooten's 12th double-double of her MSU career as part of the 22nd double-double of VanSlooten's collegiate career after 10 during her time at Oregon.

• With her 12th double-double of her Spartan career, VanSlooten moves up to tie for 18th on MSU's career double-doubles list, matching Kelli Roehrig (2001-05) and Jill Prudden (1975-78). With the 22 double-doubles of her collegiate career, VanSlooten moves up to tie for No. 42 among active NCAA Division I women's basketball players.

• VanSlooten's jersey-number matching 14 rebounds is her fifth double-figure rebounding outing of the season, posting a double-double each time . . . it also marked her 13th double-figure rebounding game as a Spartan.

• Saturday also marked the ninth time this season that VanSlooten has led or shared the team lead in scoring, and MSU is now 7-2 when VanSlooten is top scorer.

• VanSlooten now has 189 points and 96 rebounds in the last 11 games, since being held to eight points and four rebounds vs. Rutgers (12/28/25) . . . VanSlooten is now averaging 17.2 points and 8.8 rebounds per game over the last 11 outings, as part of averaging 15.5 ppg and 6.8 rpg for the season.

• With her 20 points on Saturday, VanSlooten has posted double figures in the scoring column 22 times out of the 24 games this season . . . VanSlooten has netted double-digit points in 41 of the last 44 games . . . in her time as a Spartan, VanSlooten now has posted 10+ points in 51 of 55 total games played for the Green & White, being held to single digits twice this season and twice last season, and also missing one game last season due to illness.

• The 20 points Saturday marked was VanSlooten's 106th game of her collegiate career logging double-digits, and she's now scored in double-figures in 106 out of the 118 career games, logging 10+ points in 55 games during her time at Oregon.

• VanSlooten has snared seven or more boards in five of the last six games . . . VanSlooten has pulled down five of more boards 17 times out of the 24 games this season, including doing so in nine of the last 11 contests and 10 of the last 13.

• VanSlooten also swiped two steals . . . it was VanSlooten's sixth game in the last eight outings and 13th total game with multiple steals this season . . . VanSlooten has at least one steal in each of the 24 games this season.

• With three assists Saturday, VanSlooten has dished out three or more assists in each of the last five games as part six times in the last seven games . . . overall, VanSlooten has 11 games with three or more helpers.

• Senior guard Jalyn Brown netted 16 points, logging double-figures for the season-long fourth-straight game . . . Brown has netted 10+ points in five of the last six and six of the last eight games . . . overall, Brown has 13 double-figure outings this season out of the 24 total games.

• Guard Rashunda JonesJones was a perfect 7-of-7 at the free throw line, marking the sixth time this season she was 100 percent at the charity stripe with two or more attempts . . . she has gone at least 4-of 4 or more five times, going 8-of-8 vs. Clemson (11/30/25), 7-of-7 Saturday at Penn State, 6-of-6 vs. Rutgers (12/28/25), 5-of-5 vs. Illinois (1/4/26) and 4-of-4 at Indian (1/1/26).

• Jones dished out a team-high five assists, as she had distributed five or more helpers in two of the last three games after six assists vs. Michigan (2/1/26) . . . she has 17 games with three or more helpers.

• Redshirt-junior guard Kennedy Blair tallied 12 points for her fifth game in a row in double-figures as part of 12 of the last 13 games and 18 times out of the 24 games this season . . . Blair now has 22 career games with double-digits in the scoring column.

• Blair also snared seven rebounds, as she's pulled down five or more boards in 17-straight games as part of in 21 of the 24 games.

• Freshman guard Amy Terrian came of the bench to ignite the Spartan comeback with three 3-pointers in a row in the third quarter . . . Terrian's three triples was the most in a Big Ten game and her second-most of the season behind her career-high five triples vs. Mercyhurst in the season-opener (11/4/25).

• Terrian netted multiple triples for just the fourth time this season.

• Senior guard Emma Shumate netted one 3-pointer on Saturday, as she has drained at least one triple in 21 of the 24 games this season.

• With one 3-pointers, Shumate now has 51 triples on the season as part of 55 total field goals . . . Shumate's 51 3-pointers this season continues her top single-single mark of her career, topping the 44 treys last season . . . Shumate now has 95 3-pointers during her two-year Spartan career and 135 total 3-pointers in her collegiate career after 40 during her two seasons at Ohio State.

• Shumate's 51 3-pointers is just 18 shy of cracking the Top 10 of MSU's single-season 3-pointers list, as Matilda Ekh currently has the No. 9 and 10 spots with 69 3-pointers in both the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons.

• The Spartan sharp-shooter Shumate's current 3-point percentage of 43.6 percent (51-of-117) is currently No. 3 on MSU's single-season 3-pointers list, trailing Lindsay Bowen (2002-03) at 46.4 percent (77-of-166) and Moira Joiner (2023-24) at 44.2 percent (80-of-181) . . . Shumate also currently holds the tied for No. 7 spot at 40.0 percent (44-of-110) from last season, matching Eileen Shea (1989-90) at 40.0 percent (50-of-125).