Jan. 24, 2008

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EVANSTON, Ill. - Craig Moore scored a career-high 28 points and tied a school record by knocking down seven 3-pointers, but it wasn't enough as the Northwestern men's basketball team dropped a 78-62 decision to 10th-ranked Michigan State at Welsh-Ryan Arena Thursday evening.

Raymar Morgan scored 23 points and Drew Neitzel added 20 for the Spartans (17-2, 5-1) who used some hot shooting from 3-point range to jump out to an early lead. Neitzel connected on 6 of 10 3-point attempts for MSU.

Kevin Coble chipped in 17 points and a team-high six rebounds for Northwestern (6-10, 0-6).

Michigan State was unstoppable from 3-point range in the opening half as it led by as many as 21 points before the break at 36-15 with five minutes left. The Spartans connected eight of their nine tries from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes of play.

Despite the large deficit, the Wildcats rallied back with a 13-0 run behind eight points by Moore to climb back within eight with just over two minutes remaining before the break.

NU was down by 10 when Coble knocked down a trey out of the corner to get the Wildcats within 38-31 in the final minute before Chris Allen hit his fourth 3-pointer in as many attempts to give Michigan State a 41-31 advantage going into halftime. MSU hit 15 of 23 shots (65.2 percent) overall in the first half.

The Spartans used a quick 12-0 run out of the intermission to build their lead back up to 22. The Wildcats answered right back with nine consecutive points of their own on three straight 3s by Moore, but the deficit proved to be too large for Northwestern to overcome.

The closest NU would get the rest of the way would be 10 points with just under two minutes remaining.

Michigan State shot 60.4 percent (29-48) from the field for the contest, compared to 42.1 percent (24-57) for the Wildcats. The Spartans held a slim 27-25 rebounding advantage as Northwestern tallied a season-high 14 offensive rebounds.

The Wildcats return to action at 7 p.m. Sunday when it travels to Illinois. The contest is being televised by the Big Ten Network.

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