Michigan State’s Win Is a Real Slam

Kelvin Torbert showed his high-flying Michigan State teammate Shannon Brown that he can dunk too.

“You’ll have to find out from Shannon what kind of marks he gave me,” Torbert said after No. 3-ranked Michigan State’s 89-81 victory over DePaul on Sunday in the championship game of the Spartan Classic at East Lansing, Mich.

Torbert, the tournament most valuable player, scored 19 points and Chris Hill had 16 points and a career-high 11 assists for the Spartans (3-1).

Alan Anderson scored his 16 points in the second half to help the Spartans hold off the Blue Demons (3-1).

“I said going in we’d have to play two good games to win this tournament,” Spartan Coach Tom Izzo said.

“I saw enough good moments to say, ‘This is where we can be,’ and enough bad minutes to say, ‘We have a lot of work ahead of us.’ ”

Brown was a big reason for that optimism, scoring nine of his 13 points in the first half and securing the victory with two breakaway dunks in the final minute.

Delonte Holland had 27 points for DePaul, Andre Brown had 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Quemont Greer scored 15 points.

No. 7 Syracuse 69, Rhode Island 65 -- Hakim Warrick scored a career-high 30 points at Syracuse, N.Y., to help the defending national champion Orangemen narrowly avoid their first 0-2 start since the 1968-69 team opened 0-5.

The Orangemen shot only 39.2% and were outrebounded, 55-41. But Rhode Island (3-2) made only one of 22 three-point shots.

Warrick made 18 free throws to tie the school record set two years ago by Allen Griffin, but was only six for 15 from the field.

Dustin Hellenga led Rhode Island with 16 points.

No. 20 Stanford 60, Rice 56 -- Rob Little and Chris Hernandez each scored 17 points to lift the Cardinal (3-0) at Houston.

Stanford rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit.

Jason McKrieth scored 14 points for Rice (3-1). Brock Gillespie scored 13 points and Michael Harris finished with eight points and nine rebounds.

The Cardinal rallied from a 31-22 deficit early in the second half.

Hernandez made a three-point basket and Little made three baskets in a row to help Stanford cut the deficit to 33-32.

Robinson then converted a three-point play to give Stanford its first lead, 35-33.