It wasn’t easy. It never is.

In this rivalry. On the road in the Big Ten. When the veterans who Tom Izzo wants consistency from aren’t delivering or have to sit on the bench for long stretches.

Michigan State basketball still found a way to get its first win at Michigan in five years Saturday night, thanks to a ton of defensive plays and one game-clinching run late.

It took an 8-0 run, spanning about 2½ minutes late in the second half, that proved to be the difference as the Spartans outlasted the pesky last-place Wolverines, 73-63, at Crisler Center. MSU held U-M scoreless over the final 7:01.

That gave the Spartans (17-9, 9-6 Big Ten) the first season sweep in the series by either team since they won both regular-season meetings and the Big Ten championship game over U-M in 2019. MSU blasted the Wolverines earlier this year, 81-62, on Jan. 30 at Breslin Center.

This one was much more difficult, even more so than the final score showed.

Momentum flipped back and forth all game, with eight ties and six lead changes, until A.J. Hoggard’s driving layup with 6:04 to play sparked the key pull-away run. Malik Hall added a pair of free throws after a critical offensive rebound, then a tomahawk dunk seconds later after another defensive stop.

TOUGHING IT OUT: Michigan State basketball's Tyson Walker fine with low scoring, 'just focusing on winning'

Then Hoggard delivered a strip steal, feeding ahead to Tyson Walker, who dished to Jaden Akins for a layup with 3:38 to play. MSU didn’t score again until Walker’s two free throws with 31.5 ticks remaining closed the books.

The Spartans forced 22 U-M turnovers, getting 15 steals – three apiece from Walker, Akins and Hoggard. They turned those Wolverines giveaways into 27 points. MSU's bench outscored U-M, 23-2, and the Spartans also had a 19-2 advantage on the fastbreak.

Walker led MSU with 19 points on 6-for-16 shooting, while Hall had 18 points and made 8 of 13 shots. The Spartans host Iowa at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Breslin Center; the game will not be televised but will be streamed on Peacock.

Five players scored in double figures for Michigan (8-18, 3-12), led by 15 points and 11 rebounds from Tarris Reed Jr.

Dug McDaniel had 13 points and Jaelin Llewellyn 12 for the Wolverines, but they went 8-for-24 combined. Olivier Nkamhoua scored 11 points, and Nimari Burnett added 10. Nkahouma and McDaniel combined for 13 of U-M’s turnovers.

Offensive struggles

After struggling to find continuity in Wednesday’s road win at Penn State, MSU’s offense struggled to find rhythm again during the first half. Some of that was compounded by Hoggard picking up two early fouls and playing on 3:10 in the first half.

Walker and Hall carried the Spartans’ scoring early, combining for 18 points. However, Walker – continuing to play through a groin injury – looked timid from outside and missed both his 3-point attempts, going 4-for-10 in his 19 first-half minutes. Hall was 4-for-6 but committed three of MSU’s seven turnovers in the first 20 minutes.

Enter the unexpected cast of characters.

Coen Carr had eight points on 3-for-4 shooting, including a three-point play. He also drew a flagrant-1 foul on Michigan’s Will Tschetter on a breakaway attempt, making 1 of 2 at the line with 9:21 to go in the half.

After a U-M stop on MSU’s ensuing possession, McDaniel hit an open 3-pointer. But Tre Holloman’s steal and breakaway layup with 7:52 to go sparked a 9-1 Spartan run. Carr got their seventh steal of the half, then kept the ball for a highlight reel dunk that forced Wolverines coach Juwan Howard to call timeout with 4:21 before half.

McDaniel then got hot, scoring seven straight points to force Izzo to call timeout. Out of it, the Spartans got a pair of Walker free throws, then he delivered an alley-oop for Carr, who made a diving defensive save to spark the runout.

The Wolverines would go on an 8-0 run, starting with a Burnett 3-pointer and capped with another triple from Llewellyn, that caused Izzo to call another timeout with 38.7 to go before the break.

Holloman then got fouled by Tschetter and hit both free throws with 24.6 seconds left to tie the game at 37-all. Already with two fouls and with Hoggard sitting with a pair of fouls since the 14:18 mark, Holloman went to the bench and was replaced by seldom-used Davis Smith.

It would turn out to be a pivotal substitution.

Carr plucked MSU’s ninth steal of the half with inside 4 seconds left, then tried to feed Walker on a runout. McDaniel tipped the intended outlet pass, but it bounced right to Smith, and the U-M guard fouled the walk-on guard, the son of Spartan legend Steve Smith. The horn sounded almost simultaneously with the whistle. Refs reviewed the play and timing, sending Smith to the free-throw line and resetting the clock to 0.4 seconds.

The 6-foot, 160-pound senior stepped to the line and calmly drained both shots. McDaniel’s desperation heave missed, and MSU went to the locker room leading 39-37 in one of the more improbable ways you could imagine.

The Spartans’ bench outscored the Wolverines’ reserves in the first half, 17-0. MSU had a 13-0 advantage in fastbreak points – thanks largely to turning their nine steals into 13 points off U-M turnovers – and a 22-8 scoring edge in the paint.

However, the Wolverines kept close by making 5-of-13 from 3-point range, while the Spartans missed all five of their deep attempts. McDaniel and Llewellyn each had two of those and combined for 19 points at the break.

Slow starts, strong finishes

That end-of-half surge did not stick for MSU, nor did it faze U-M.

The Wolverines opened the half on an 11-4 spurt, with McDaniel draining a 3-pointer as Walker lost him on defense as part of the run to flip the lead. A three-point play by Llewellyn through a Walker foul pushed it to 53-47 with 13:13 to play.

But after the Spartans missed their first seven 3-pointers, Walker finally ended the drought immediately after Llewellyn’s play. He then went down the other end and got another steal, then got fouled in transition and made both free throws.

After another three-point play for U-M, this one by Reed, Walker did it again in a different way, driving into the paint and lobbing to Cooper for a dunk. And Holloman drove for a layup with 11:29 left to tie it at 56-all.

It continued to go back and forth from there, with a Hall dunk in transition off a Hoggard dish and Akins draining the Spartans’ second 3-pointer. Only to have the Wolverines answer with five straight on two Reed free throws and a Burnett 3-pointer.

Cooper had a tip-dunk off a Walker miss, but Tschetter answered with his own put-back over Cooper to knot it at 63-63 with 7:01 to play.

But the Spartans’ veterans made sure they would finally get a win at Crisler. Hoggard, after missing a pair of free throws, got a steal to give himself another chance. His driving layup after it sparked the final knockout run MSU needed to head home victorious.

The Spartans had lost four in a row at Crisler since its last win in Ann Arbor, which was Feb. 24, 2019. The home team has won 10 straight regular-season meetings since the Spartans’ home win at the end of the 2018-19 season.  They lost those games by an average of 13 points per game.

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State uses stifling defense to get 15 steals, beats U-M 73-63