Michigan State takes down Bowling Green in exhibition game, 75-66

The Michigan State men's basketball team took the victory in its first exhibition game of the 2025-2026 season, defeating Bowling Green State University by a score of 75-66.

This is the first of two exhibition games for the Spartans as they will also hit the road versus UConn on Wednesday, Oct. 28.

The Spartans were elite at protecting the rim, as they blocked 14 shots compared to the Falcons' zero. However, the final score was much closer than many fans anticipated.

Junior forward Coen Carr led Michigan State with 17 points on 7-of-11 from the field, and led the team in blocks with four. Junior forward Jaxon Kohler was the second-leading scorer for the Spartans with 15 points. In addition to the points, Kohler added 10 rebounds as well.

Redshirt sophomore point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. also impressed, as he finished with a near double-double with 12 points and nine assists.

Guards Trey Fort and Kur Teng were able to add nine and seven points for the Spartans, respectively.

The rebounding was nearly even: the Falcons barely beat out the Spartans by a tally of 43-42 on the glass — something that MSU head coach Tom Izzo will almost certainly point out to his team as an area that needs to improve.

Michigan State excelled from the 3-point line in the first half, shooting 6-of-14 (42.9%) from behind the arc. However, the Spartans finished the game just 8-for-25 (32%). MSU shot 27-for-65 overall (42%).

Meanwhile, BGSU was held to just 32% from 3-point range as well (7-for-22) and shot only 38% from the field overall (23-for-60). Sam Towns excelled for the Falcons, as he went 8-for-10 from the field with 20 points, which led Bowling Green State.

First Half

Michigan State started off with a rocky start, going down 8-7 after four minutes with the Falcons knocking down two quick 3-pointers. A fast-break lob from Fears to Carr kicked off the scoring for the Spartans.

Carr was an exciting watch in the first eight minutes before checking out. Including to the lob from Fears, Carr added seven of the Spartans' first 15 points. He also denied two fast-break layups.

Michigan State was unable to get away from the Falcons, however. BGSU took the lead and extended it to five points with just under ten minutes left in the first half at 22-17.

After Carr tied the game at 22-22 on yet another lob from Fears, MSU took the lead on a 3-point from Fears to make the score 25-22 with 8:12 left in the opening half.

The Spartans led 28-27 with 6:21 left in the first half. The lead was quickly extended to eight points after a fast-break layup from sophomore guard Divine Ugochukwu and an and-one layup by senior center Carson Cooper.

A 3-pointer from first-time starter Teng extended the lead to 11 points with 1:08 left before halftime.

After taking the aforementioned 28-27 lead, the Spartans closed the half on a 20-12 run and went into the break up 48-39.

Second Half

The Falcons kept fighting and were able to close the gap to seven points at the under-16 media timeout of the second half after a couple of easy layups.

Teng started the second half well, knocking down two mid-range jumpers off of screens set for him.

Carr continued his dominance, blocking a BGSU 3-pointer for his fourth block of the game, which forced a shot clock violation. MSU held a 54-46 lead with 14:51 left in the second half.

BGSU closed the deficit to just four points after a pair of free throws, but Kohler was able to extend it back to 57-50 with an and-one play with 13:00 left to play.

MSU lost the lead, however, as BGSU tied it at 57-57 with a 3-pointer with 10:32 remaining on the clock. That tie was short-lived thanks to a fast-break dunk by Carr.

The Spartans started to separate themselves after Fort knocked down a trey, then Fears converted on an and-one floater, which added up to a 65-59 lead for the Spartans with 7:31 left.

Carr got to the free-throw line to extend MSU's lead to double-digits at 71-61 with 4:21 left in the game.

Bowling Green continued to keep things close, but MSU would hang on to the lead and finish the game with a 75-66 final score.