Finding consistency has been a continuous battle throughout the career of Michigan State men's basketball forward Malik Hall, but the fifth-year senior achieved a milestone amidst arguably the best stretch of his career.
With 16 points in a 76-66 win over Minnesota, Hall eclipsed 1,000 career points as a Spartan, becoming the 55th player in program history to surpass that total.
Hall's milestone basket came on a layup with 17 minutes left in the game, and gave Michigan State a 45-44 lead at the time. The Spartans followed up that possession with a defensive stop, in which Hall grabbed the defensive rebound. On the subsequent offensive possession, point guard A.J. Hoggard found Hall with a nice bounce pass in the pick-and-roll, and Hall threw down a monster slam dunk that brought the Breslin Center crowd to its feet.
Hall finished the game with a double-double (16 points, 12 rebounds) which continued his strong play in recent weeks. Over the past six games, the senior is averaging 14.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, three assists and one steal per game. That includes the game against Northwestern, in which Hall had zero points, rebounds, assists and steals in 26 minutes of action. Remove that outing, and the senior is averaging 17.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.2 steals in those other five games.
Hall becomes the second Spartan to reach 1,000 points at MSU this season. Fifth-year senior Tyson Walker achieved that milestone earlier in the year in just three seasons at Michigan State. Walker scored 680 points in two seasons at Northeastern before transferring to MSU, and is currently up to 1,119 points as a Spartan and 1,799 for his college career.
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