EAST LANSING — Grace VanSlooten isn’t trying to do anything special when she enters the game off the bench for the Michigan State women’s basketball team.
The main priority for the junior is to provide the Spartans with whatever they need.
And she did just that Sunday afternoon.
VanSlooten helped get things going for the Spartans as they remained unbeaten at home with an 80-68 victory over Washington in a Big Ten contest at Breslin Center.
VanSlooten recorded her third double-double of the season, finishing with 19 points and 12 rebounds to lead MSU.
While Sunday marked the first meeting between the Spartans and Washington in Big Ten play, VanSlooten has plenty of familiarity with the Huskies from her days playing at Oregon. And she used that to her advantage.
“My freshman year I played them four times,” VanSlooten said. “I definitely know a lot about Washington. I’ve played against a lot of girls there. I think the familiarity kind of helped a little bit. I think I also was looking to get a win. I hadn’t beat them in a while. I think that kind of gave a little bit of an ulterior motive. I kind of wanted to get that win back.”
The Spartans were off to a slow start and trailed 10-2 when VanSlooten entered the game and helped get things back on track
“I thought Grace came in in the first quarter and we really had a slow start and she came in right away and got us going,” MSU coach Robyn Fralick said
Julia Ayrault and Theryn Hallock also had big stretches for the Spartans (13-3, 3-2 Big Ten) as they remained unbeaten at home and bounced back from Wednesday’s road loss at Nebraska.
Ayrault had 19 points and nine rebounds and Hallock had 11 points for the Spartans, who ended a five-game winning streak for Washington (12-5, 3-2). Ines Sotelo was also in double figures and had 11 points for MSU.
“It was a great win for our team,” Fralick said. “We knew coming in Washington is a really good team. I think they’ve been playing their best basketball recently as well. We knew coming in it was going to take a lot of focus and precision and execution and I thought our team did a really good job of that in all the areas.”
MSU pushed its lead to double figures for the first time in the early stages of the fourth quarter when it outscored he Huskies, 9-4. Washington never got closer than seven the rest of the way.
“Coach said in the locker room this was one of our smartest games,” Hallock said. “I think we played really smart. We stayed composed and we didn’t let their run affect us.
“We made some defensive steals and deflections and turned that into offense and we just stayed composed the whole time and stayed together.”
Sayvia Sellers had a game-high 21 points to lead Washington before fouling out.
Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on X @brian_calloway.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State women’s basketball knocks off Washington
