Gary Harris sparked No. 21 Michigan State Spartans past the Texas Southern Tigers 69-41 Sunday to mark their 36th consecutive victory in home openers.
Top scorer Harris netted 19 points, while Branden Dawson added 13 points and Adreian Payne contributed with nine points and seven rebounds for the Spartans.
"It wasn't a great performance," the Associated Press quoted Michigan State coach Tom Izzo as saying. "I'm still a stage of trying to figure out who's going to be in the playing group.
"We had 10 guys play 12 minutes or more, which is almost impossible to do."
The Spartans' reserve player an freshman Denzel Valentine had eight points from four out of nine attempts, where as Matt Costello added four points.
For the Tigers, Fred Sturdivant scored 10 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, while Raymond Penn added 10 points and Kyrie Sutton had 11 rebounds.
"We were trying to do some things we can build on and get better as a basketball team,'' Mike Davis said. ''We knew it would be a definite challenge, especially after playing Friday and flying out Saturday. All we wanted to do was try to improve."
Michigan State is showing some weaknesses in offense, but their defense is looking strong and stronger.
"We got a lot of points off layups," Izzo said. "We're still not getting the ball inside and getting enough inside-out. Our three-point shooting selection was average at best."
After travelling more than 9,500 miles, the Spartans were looking relaxed and motivated to win their home opener. "It feels good to finally be at home, but Coach Izzo is trying to test us," Harris said. "We just have to mentally ready to play and step on their toes before they step on ours."
Michigan State were leading 40-19 at the halftime and considering the Tigers' sluggish performance, the game was never really in danger. The home team had a good shooting percentage of 55.2 in the first half, while an aggressive defense accounted for nine steals in the first 20 minutes.
Harris had scored 14 points in the first half alone and led the team to the 21-point lead in the first half.
In the second half, the Spartans again outscored their opponents 29-22 to start their season at home on a positive note.
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