What damage? Freshman leads Michigan State past Colorado in Maui Invitational opener

So much for Jase Richardson’s sprained left ankle.

Less than a week after rolling it late in a game and being helped off the field, he was leading Michigan State.

The freshman guard came off the bench and scored a career-high 13 points as the Spartans rolled to a 72-56 victory against Colorado on Monday in the opener of the Maui Invitational at the Lahaina Civic Center.

In the first tournament setting of the season, Michigan State overcame another poor shooting performance from beyond the arc (2-for-21) with a deep rotation, explosive transition game and active defense.

The Spartans (5-1) play their second of three games in three days Tuesday (6 p.m., ESPN) in the semifinals against Memphis (5-0), which survived a late rally to beat No. 2 UConn 99- 97 in overtime earlier Monday. The other half of the console has no. 4 Auburn, no. 5 Iowa State, no. 12 North Carolina and Dayton, who all play later Monday night.

Richardson made six of eight field goals and was one of 10 different scorers for the Spartans, whose bench outscored the Buffaloes 40–13. Frankie Fidler scored nine, Jeremy Fears had eight and six assists and Coen Carr had eight points.

Julian Hammond led Colorado with 15 points, while Elijah Malone scored 14.

Any concerns about Richardson’s mobility after suffering a sprained ankle late in last week’s 83-75 win against Samford were quickly erased. He checked in less than four minutes into the game and immediately got into the paint for a basket. Richardson shot 4-for-4 from the floor in the first half and Carr made all three of his shot attempts as the two combined for 14 of Michigan State’s 23 bench points in the first 20 minutes.

That helped offset the terrible 3-point shooting that has plagued the Spartans so far this season. They entered Monday’s game ranked 352nd out of 355 teams in the nation from beyond the arc shooting just 22.1 percent and picked up where they left off. Michigan State shot 50 percent (15-for-30) from the floor in the opening half despite missing all nine 3-point attempts.

After the teams traded baskets and slim leads, the Spartans closed the half on a 17-4 run. Colorado went scoreless for more than five minutes and missed 10 straight shots at one point before going into halftime trailing 38-25.

Coming out of the locker room, the Buffaloes put together an 8-2 run with a pair of triples from Hammond, but three quick turnovers prevented them from cutting the deficit further. After Michigan State missed its first 14 three-pointers, Richardson knocked one down a little more than six minutes into the second half to reestablish a double-digit advantage. The Spartans cruised down the stretch to secure a spot in the semifinals.