EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN — As Denzel Valentine grabbed a rebound and rumbled down the court early in the second half Saturday, no Terrapins men’s basketball player stepped in front of him. So the Michigan State star went coast to coast, avoided a late swipe from guard Rasheed Sulaimon and gave the Spartans the lead on a layup.
Valentine’s basket with 14:45 remaining was part of an 8-0 run as Michigan State erased a four-point Terps lead with five fast-break points in the span of 25 seconds. The Terps never fully recovered after quickly surrendering their largest lead of the night. They led for just 27 seconds the rest of the contest.
On the Spartans’ possession before Valentine’s layup, he had secured a rebound, then dribbled down the right sideline and into the lane. Valentine drew a host of Terp defenders before he spun and found a trailing Bryn Forbes for a 3-pointer.
The Terps struggled to contain Valentine and Forbes — the Spartans’ two starting senior guards — in transition Saturday. The duo combined for 14 of the Spartans’ 18 fast-break points and scored more points in transition than the entire Terps team (10). While transition defense was one of the No. 8 Terps’ two keys entering Saturday, their inability to get back on defense contributed to a 74-65 loss to No. 12 Michigan State at the Breslin Center.
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“They had 33 points off of transition and second-chance points,” coach Mark Turgeon said. “That’s really the game.”
While the Terps have struggled with turnovers this season — they are 11th in the Big Ten with 13.2 turnovers per game — they weren’t careless Saturday. The team had nine turnovers and more points off turnovers (10) than the Spartans (seven).
Instead, Michigan State’s fast-break points often came when the Terps missed shots. In that 25-second stretch early in the second half, missed 3-pointers from Sulaimon and guard Melo Trimble led to Michigan State’s quick breakouts. Valentine often led the rush down the court as he grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds, including 10 on the defensive end.
Other times, the Terps simply failed to get back on defense. After an acrobatic layup from Trimble cut the deficit to six with about four minutes left in the first half, his teammates lost track of Spartans forward Matt Costello. The senior slipped behind the defense, caught a pass from Valentine and threw down a dunk with no one near him.
“I think we got gassed a little bit,” Trimble said. “They’re a tremendous transition team, and we weren’t getting back on defense.”
Sulaimon and Trimble played 39 and 37 minutes, respectively, after both were on the court for more than 40 minutes Jan. 19 in a 62-56 overtime win against Northwestern.
The Terps also pushed the pace at times, though. Turgeon’s squad built its four-point lead early in the second half with two consecutive fast-break baskets from forward Robert Carter Jr.
While the Terps had spurts of fast-break success Saturday and didn’t allow a fast-break point in the game’s final nine minutes, the Spartans held an 18-10 edge in the category.
“Our fast break was probably as good as it has been in a couple years,” Spartans coach Tom Izzo said.
Still, the Terps took responsibility for a lot of their success. And Trimble believes the lackluster transition defense was a one-time occurrence.
When the Terps step onto the Xfinity Center court Thursday to face No. 3 Iowa, which is undefeated in conference play, that issue will be fixed, he said.
“It was just bad tonight,” Trimble said Saturday. “We’re going to get better at it.”
