Spartans snap Ohio State's long home win streak
NCAA Basketball Betting Lines
02/11/2012 - Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Adreian Payne scored a team-high 15 points as No. 11 Michigan State handed third-ranked Ohio State its first home loss in almost two years with a 58-48 decision at Value City Arena.
Keith Appling added 14 points and Draymond Green had 12 with nine rebounds for Michigan State (20-5, 9-3 Big Ten), which earned its third straight win and now sits in a tie with Ohio State for the top spot in the conference.
Jared Sullinger recorded 17 points and a season-high 16 rebounds for Ohio State (21-4, 9-3), but also had a career-high 10 turnovers in the Buckeyes' first loss in Columbus since February 17, 2010. They were riding a 39-game home win streak entering Saturday's contest.
Aaron Craft dropped in 15 points in a losing effort as Ohio State shot just 26.4 percent from the floor in the contest, including a 2-for-15 mark from three-point range.
After Payne's layup gave Michigan State an early 4-2 lead, Ohio State reeled off seven straight points. But Green's three-pointer halted the spurt and sparked a 7-1 swing by the Spartans to take a slim, 11-10, lead.
A pair of Sullinger free throws put the Buckeyes back on top before an 11-4 run by Michigan State put them ahead, 22-16, as Ohio State failed to make a shot from the floor for over nine minutes.
Sullinger's trey stopped Ohio State's offensive drought and brought the Buckeyes within three, but the Spartans recorded the game's next six points to take their largest lead of the game to that point, 28-19, with less than five minutes left in the first half.
The Buckeyes never got closer than six for the remainder of the half and trailed 35-25 at the break for their largest halftime deficit of the season.
Ohio State shot just 7-for-21 from the floor and turned the ball over eight times in the first half, while Michigan State went 15-for-32 and recorded 14 points off of the Buckeyes' giveaways.
Ohio State scored the first four points of the second half to close the gap to six, but the Spartans responded with six straight points to go ahead, 41-29, just past the four-minute mark of the half.
The Spartans held at least an eight-point lead over the next four minutes, but after Appling's layup gave Michigan State a 44-34 lead, Ohio State made a push, scoring six straight to get within 44-40.
Two Appling free throws then put Michigan State back up six, and after Ohio State missed four straight shots in succession in an offensive flurry, Derrick Nix's jumper stopped the Spartan's seven-minute streak without a basket from the floor.
Ohio State never threatened again from there, as the Spartans made enough free throws down the stretch.
Game Notes
Michigan State recorded its 12th 20-win season in the last 15 years...Ohio State fell to 5-3 against ranked opponents this season...The Spartans hold a 64-53 advantage in the all-time series...Michigan State shot 40.4 percent in the game and outscored Ohio State in the paint, 30-12.
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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK
NFL Football Trash TalkTrash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.