Basketball: No. 20 Michigan State trounces Lions, 84-58:
“STATE COLLEGE — Michigan State looked sluggish in the first half against Penn State. Tom Izzo made sure that changed after halftime.
“Alan Anderson scored 17 points and Shannon Brown added 16 to lead No. 20 Michigan State to an 84-58 win over Penn State last night in the Big Ten opener for both teams.
” ‘We challenged them a bit because we weren’t happy with the energy,’ Izzo said. ‘We’ve had more energy in practice the last four days than we had at the beginning of the game. But sometimes when you have long layoffs — and that’s what we’re battling here, we’ve played so few games in so many days — they’re sick of practicing and sometimes they don’t carry it over.
” ‘It was a tough night with the weather and everything and a lot of excuses why we didn’t play as hard, but we’re going to have to.’
“Michigan State (9-2) shot 30-of-59 for the game and 16-of-17 from the free-throw line. With a 10-point lead at halftime, the Spartans outscored the Nittany Lions (6-8) 44-28 in the second half and held them to just eight field goals.”