Special to the Democrat

MINNEAPOLIS &045; The No. 1-seeded Spartans struggled with turnovers and tepid shooting early, then got going in the second half behind Liz Shimek to beat Alcorn 73-41 Saturday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Shimek led Michigan State (29-3) with 18 points and added 13 rebounds. Michigan State ran its winning streak to 13 with its 17th victory in the last 18 games and will play eighth-seeded Southern Cal in the second round of the Kansas City Regional on Monday night.

&uot;We played a great team today,&uot; Walker said. &uot;I admire my team and the leadership. They did not play with any fear. Rebounds played a big difference today in addition to some turnovers. But defensively we struggled a bit and they took advantage with easy buckets to start runs.&uot;

Michigan State head coach Joanne McCallie said she liked her team’s enthusiasm in the game.

&uot;I’m proud of the effort,&uot; McCallie said. &uot;We had an opportunity to work on some things.&uot;

Michigan State opened with 2-3 zone defense, which forced Alcorn to take jumpshots from the outside.

Alcorn went down 4-0 early on buckets by Kristin Haynie and Liz Shimek, the Lady Braves finally got on the board at the 15:50 mark as Tnonealyer Powers put back a Tanika Nunez miss to pull Alcorn to within two, 4-2, the closes the Lady Braves would be for the rest of the contest.

Michigan State answered right back with four straight to take an 8-2 lead with 14:54 remaining in the period.

Alcorn guard LaToya Johnson, who was cold from the field for most of the half, notched her first points of the night with a fast-break layup with 47 seconds left as to put Alcorn down 30-17 at the half.

The Lady Braves missed eight layups in the opening period. Michigan State dominated points in the paint, 22-8.

Alcorn State was miserable from the field shooting just 19.4-percent. The Lady Spartans had no such troubles, shooting 14-of-29.

&uot;We missed some easy baskets that were very disappointing for me,&uot; Alcorn head coach Shirley Walker said. &uot;I don’t know why we rushed those shots because we were right there. We were looking for whistles instead of focusing on making the shots. We rushed a lot of shots.&uot;

In the second half Alcorn State failed to rally early and Michigan State built onto its lead en route to cruising to victory.

Sims paced the Lady Braves attack with 11 points, while Powers and Johnson added 10 and nine in the losing effort. Natasha Dennis notched only two points while Candace Roberts went scoreless on the afternoon. Four Lady Spartans etched double-figures in the win. Shimek led the way with 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field. Roehrig added 12, while Lucas-Perry and Danielle Doneth scored 10 each.

&uot;We gave the underclassmen something to work for,&uot; Johnson said. &uot;We provided them with great leadership and gave them a taste of the tournament, hopefully they’ll be able to get back.&uot;

Information from The Associated Press was used in this story.