Western Michigan @ Michigan St. preview

No. 16 Michigan State goes for a fifth straight win before heading back to conference play when it hosts Western Michigan for a non-conference contest Sunday. The Spartans had more than a week off after defeating Eastern Michigan by 53 points on Dec. 21, while the Broncos have won three in a row but have been off since a Dec. 18 win over Aquinas College.

Junior guard Michael Flowers leads Western Michigan and ranks second in the Mid-American Conference with his 17.5 points per game, while junior forward Brandon Johnson adds 15.5 points and 9.0 rebounds per contest. The Broncos are aggressive without being out of control, ranking ninth in the nation in free throws attempted while placing 23rd in the country in fewest turnovers per game. Tom Izzo's squad has one of the top players in the country in senior guard Cassius Winston, who paces the Spartans with 17.6 points and 6.1 assists per game. Junior forward Xavier Tillman is an anchor for Michigan State on both ends of the floor, averaging 12.9 points and 9.8 rebounds and shooting 54.1 percent from the field.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network.

ABOUT WESTERN MICHIGAN (7-5): Western Michigan continues to look for a third scorer, with Flowers and Johnson combining for 33 points while the rest of the team averages a combined 40.4 points. Junior guard Rafael Cruz Jr. is the team's third-leading scorer at 8.1 points per game coming off the bench, while sophomore guard Adrian Martin showed a little something against Aquinas, scoring a career-best 10 points, hitting 2-of-3 from 3-point range. Coach Steve Hawkins would certainly like to see more from his other three starters, who combine for 17.6 points per game, but with two of those starters -- Titus Wright and B. Artis White -- being freshmen, Hawkins knows that they need to grow into more of a scoring role.

ABOUT MICHIGAN STATE (9-3): Sophomore forward Aaron Henry is still working on his consistency, which the Spartans need as they search for a third scorer to complement Winston and Tillman. Henry is averaging 10.2 points on the season, but he's had his troubles in some games shooting the ball, going 2-of-10 from the field against Rutgers and 1-of-9 against Northwestern. Still, Henry has been doing a good job of contributing even when his shot isn't falling, as he's averaging 5.6 assists over the last three games and 8.5 rebounds in the last two contests.

TIP-INS

1. White set a new career standard with five rebounds in Western Michigan's win over Aquinas.

2. The Spartans rank second in the country in assists per game, averaging 19.3 per game.

3. Michigan State G Foster Loyer had a season-high 13 points in a season-most 16 minutes in the win over Eastern Michigan.

PREDICTION: Michigan State 93, Western Michigan 57