A strong defensive half from Michigan State has the Spartans up 31-23 on Butler at the end of the first half.

Michigan State got off to a hot 5-for-7 start against Butler on Wednesday night at Hinkle Fieldhouse, including 4 points, 2 rebounds and 2 blocks from Marcus Bingham Jr. as the Spartans opened an 11-5 lead over the Bulldogs with 15:53 left in the half.

The Spartans went on a 5:27 scoring drought, while Butler ended its own nearly 5-minute drought with the Spartans up 22-13 with 5:20 left before half.

The 4-minute mark seemed to be the end to the scoring drought when Chuck Harris hit a 3-pointer to cut the Spartans lead to 8 at 24-16 and spark some offense.

The next 2 minutes saw a scoring flurry, with MSU responding with Gabe Brown driving the lane, making the layup, and drawing the foul. He converted the and-1 to bring the Spartans’ lead back to 11.

Harris hit again from beyond the arc at the 3:26 mark to get the margin back to 8, before Malik Hall dropped a trey to bring the lead back to double-digits.

After Ty Groce made a layup at the 1:35 mark, the scoring stopped and the half ended with Michigan State up 31-23.

Max Christie leads all scorers heading into the half with 9 points on 4-of-5 shooting. Harris leads the Bulldogs offense with 6 points on 2-of-7 from the floor.

The Spartans are just 3-16 from 3-point land, but 8-10 from everywhere else. The Bulldogs are shooting just 26% from the floor and 3-for-15 inside the arc.

You can catch the second half on FS1. First-half highlights are below: