COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Szymon Zapala scored a season-high 15 points and No. 18 Michigan State made 8 of 10 free throws to hold off Ohio State 69-62 on Friday night for its third straight win to start Big Ten play.
Zapala fueled a 12-0 run to build a 14-point lead for the Spartans (12-2, 3-0). However, the Buckeyes rallied as John Mobley Jr. hit a 3 and Bruce Thornton followed with a jumper with 8:47 left to go up, 50-49.
Ohio State (9-5, 1-2) then committed turnovers on three straight possessions. After Thornton's second turnover in under a minute Xavier Booker drove the length of the floor for a three-point play. Tre Holloman drilled a 3 and Booker dunked to give Michigan State a 57-50 lead. Micah Parrish hit two 3-pointers and Mobley added a third, but the Spartans finished hitting 8 of 10 from the line.
Jaden Akins was 5 for 6 from the free-throw line, hitting 3 of 4 in the final minute, to finish with 14 points for Michigan State. Coen Carr was 7 for 8 at the line and added 11 points. Jaxon Kohler grabbed 10 rebounds.
Parrish was 3 of 6 from 3-point range and finished with 13 points to lead Ohio State. Thornton finished with 10 points.
Michigan State was able to attack the rim consistently.
Ohio State shot 36.7% from the floor at home, hitting 22 of 60 from the field including 7 of 27 on 3s.
After Ohio State used a 7-0 run to take a 50-49 lead, Booker turned a turnover by Thornton into a three-point play to put the Spartans back in front.
Michigan State scored 56 of its 69 points either in the paint or from the free-throw line.
Michigan State hosts Washington on Thursday, and Ohio State plays at Minnesota on Monday.
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Michigan State center Szymon Zapala, center front, shoots in front of Ohio State guard Micah Parrish (8) and Michigan State's Jaxon Kohler (0) in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Friday, Jan. 3, 2025, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Monday fired a ballistic missile that flew 1,100 kilometers (685 miles) before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, South Korea’s military said, extending its heightened weapons testing activities into 2025 weeks before Donald Trump returns as U.S. president.
The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the midrange missile was fired from an area near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang and that the launch preparations were detected in advance by the U.S. and South Korean militaries. It denounced the launch as a provocation that poses a serious threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.
The joint chiefs said the military was strengthening its surveillance and defense posture in preparation for possible additional launches and sharing information on the missile with the United States and Japan.
Japan's Defense Ministry said the missile landed outside its exclusive economic zone and that there were no reports of damage to vessels or aircraft.
The launch came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Seoul for talks with South Korean allies over the North Korean nuclear threat and other issues.
Blinken’s visit comes amid political turmoil in South Korea following President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived martial law decree and subsequent impeachment by parliament last month, which experts say puts the country at a disadvantage in getting a steady footing with Trump ahead of his return to the White House.
In a news conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, Blinken said they condemn North Korea’s latest launch, which violates U.N. Security Council resolutions against the North, and reiterated concerns about the growing alignment between Pyongyang and Moscow over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.
According to U.S., Ukrainian and South Korean assessments, North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops and conventional weapons systems to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine. There are concerns that Russia could transfer North Korea advanced weapons technology in return, which could potentially enhance the threat posed by leader Kim Jong Un’s nuclear-armed military.
Blinken described the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea as a “two-way street,” saying Russia has been providing military equipment and training to the North and “intends to share space and satellite technology.”
Blinken and Cho both dismissed concerns about damage to the U.S.-South Korea alliance in the aftermath of the political turmoil in Seoul. Experts had warned that Yoon’s martial law decree — which lasted only hours but has rattled politics, high-level diplomacy and financial markets for weeks — exposed the fragility of South Korea’s democratic system in a divided society.
“We had serious concerns about some of the actions that President Yoon took and we communicated those directly to the government,” Blinken said. “At the same time we have tremendous confidence in the resilience of South Korea’s democracy, in the strength of its institutions and in the efforts that it’s making to work through those institutions, pursuant to the constitution and the rule of law to resolve differences and to do so peacefully.”
In a year-end political conference, Kim, the North Korean leader, vowed to implement the “toughest” anti-U.S. policy and criticized the Biden administration’s efforts to strengthen security cooperation with Seoul and Tokyo, which he described as a “nuclear military bloc for aggression.”
North Korean state media did not specify Kim’s policy plans or mention any specific comments about Trump. During his first term, Trump met Kim three times for talks on the North’s nuclear program.
Many experts, however, say a quick resumption of Kim-Trump summitry is unlikely as Trump would first focus on conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. North Korea’s support for Russia’s war against Ukraine also poses a challenge to efforts to revive diplomacy, experts say.
Before his presidency faltered over the ill-conceived power grab on Dec. 3, Yoon worked closely with U.S. President Joe Biden to expand joint military exercises, update nuclear deterrence strategies and strengthen trilateral security cooperation with Tokyo. South Korea's opposition-controlled National Assembly voted to lift the martial law hours after he announced it on TV and impeached him on Dec. 14.
With his presidential powers suspended, Yoon's fate lies with the Constitutional Court, which has begun deliberations on whether to dismiss or reinstate him.
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AP writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, right, attend a joint press conference following their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, right, attend a joint press conference following their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, and South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik, left, shake hands during a meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, back, and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, front, embrace each other after a joint press conference following their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, is escorted by South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, left, after a joint press conference following their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, right, shake hands after a joint press conference following their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a joint press conference following the meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, Pool)
A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea's missile launch during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech at a meeting held during Dec. 23 until Dec. 27, 2024, in Pyongyang, North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
