Michigan State University Athletics
Michigan State University
23-8,11-7Big Ten
(12) Colorado State
27-8,15-5Mountain West
No. 5 Spartans Outlast No. 12 Colorado State, 65-52, in First Round of NCAA Tournament
3/20/2026 11:39:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Three Spartans reach double figures in the victory.
NORMAN, Okla. – No. 5-seeded Michigan State women's basketball survived a scare from No. 12-seeded Colorado State, 65-62, Friday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Norman, Oklahoma at OU's Lloyd Noble Center.
The Spartans move on to the second round and will face the winner of the game between No 4-seed and host Oklahoma and No. 13-seed Idaho, on Sunday, March 22. OU and Idaho were playing late Friday night. Game details will be announced at a later time.
With Friday's win, MSU improves to 23-8, which is the most wins for a Spartan team since the 2015-16 team went 25-9. Colorado State season ends with an impressive 27-8 record.
Michigan State was led by a double-double from senior forward Grace VanSlooten, who scored 18 points to go along with 10 rebounds. She became just the seventh Division I player this century to record a double-double in their first three NCAA Tournament games.
Redshirt-sophomore guard Kennedy Blair also scored 18 points to go with a career-high three blocks. Senior guard Jalyn Brown added 13 points, including going 3-for-6 from beyond the arc.
Colorado State was led by a career-high 36 points from Brooke Carlson.
After the Spartans scored the first three points of the game, the Rams used a 9-0 run to take an early 9-3 lead in the first quarter. The Spartans went over five minutes without scoring, as they tried to get their offense going. Michigan State bounced back with four-straight points from sophomore forward Inés Sotelo cut it to a 11-10 Ram lead with less than three minutes remaining in the first quarter. The Spartans ended the stanza on a 6-0 run to lead 16-13 after the first 10 minutes.
In the second quarter, Van Slooten scored six-straight points to put MSU back on top at 24-22. MSU forced three turnovers in 1:55 but were not able to capitalize on the offensive end. Michigan State ended the first half 1-for-9 for the field. VanSlooten scored nine of MSU's 11 points in the period, but Colorado State led at the break, 29-27.
The game continued to be tight in the third period. Brown hit just the Spartans second trey of the game to make it a 39-38 game with 4:22 remaining. A Blair trey tied the game at 47-47 to end the period.
In the fourth quarter, the Spartans jumped out to a 58-52 lead. MSU was also able to keep the Rams from scoring for over two minutes until a Carlson 3-pointer with 4:37 left. Baskets by Brown and Blair gave Michigan State a five-point advantage with less than a minute remaining, and the Spartans held on for the victory.
This is the second-straight season that the Spartans have won their first round game.
Further game details for Sunday's seocnd round game will be announced at a later time, following the outcome of the Oklahoma-Idaho match-up.
