Tom Izzo points to strong defensive play, rebounding in win over UNC

Michigan State basketball picked up yet another impressive win early in the season on Thanksgiving, and head coach Tom Izzo seemed very happy afterwards.

The Spartans pulled away late to pick up an impressive double-digit victory over North Carolina on Thursday evening in the Fort Myers Tipoff Classic in Fort Myers, Fla. The Spartans led throughout most of the game, but didn't really break it open until the final few minutes for the 74-58 win over the Tar Heels.

The win on Thursday capped a two-game, two-wins stay in Fort Myers this week, with Michigan State blowing out East Carolina on Tuesday. Following the game, Izzo caught up with Jimmy Jackson of FOX Sports to talk about the victory over the Tar Heels.

"I thought the first early part of the game they were taking it to us," Izzo said during his postgame court side interview with Jackson. "They were bumping us on cuts, I didn't think we handled it very well so give credit to them. They were physical with us, and that's normally our game. But we decided halfway through that we needed to do a better job at cutting. I don't think we were sharp offensively but defensively we got better and we tried to keep up. We kept them off the sidelines like we talked about for the most part. And we rebounded the ball pretty well."

Izzo also discussed the strong play of star point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. following the win -- Fears finished the game with a career-high 19 points and seven assists to lead the Spartans.

Michigan State is now 7-0 on the year and will play their first conference game of the season next week against Iowa. Before turning our focus to the Hawkeyes, let's hear more of what Izzo had to say about this game in the video below:

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This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Tom Izzo points to strong defensive play, rebounding in win over UNC