Duke. Izzo added "But make no mistake about it, we got better tonight. We got a lot better tonight." December The Spartans returned to East Lansing to play five straight home games to end the non-conference slate. On December 1, Tom Izzo announced that Miles Bridges would miss "as least a couple of weeks" due an injured ankle. Izzo also announced that Ben Carter would not play this season and that Gavin Schilling was still some time away from being ready to play, if at all, this year. On December 3, in their first game without Bridges, the Spartans struggled mightily with one-win Oral Roberts. Kyle Ahrens received the start in Bridges' place, but MSU started slow. Freshman Nick Ward carried the Spartans, scoring a career-high 24 and adding 10 rebounds. But, the Spartans struggled defensively with ORU's size and were outrebounded and outscored in the paint. Izzo was again disappointed in his team, "Our energy level was not very good," Izzo said. "Don’t be fooled by scoring…We did not play very smart." The Spartans were able to pull out the victory 80–76 thanks in part to Cassius Winston's nine assists and 15 points. The win moved the Spartans to 5–4 on the season. Youngstown State visited East Lansing on December 6 as the Spartans played their second game without Bridges. The other three freshmen led the way for the Spartans though as Joshua Langford scored a career-high 15 points, Nick Ward added 13 points, and Cassius Winston scored eight points and dished out nine assists. Izzo enjoyed the performance by the freshmen, especially Winston, saying, "He took a big step tonight." The Spartans played well defensively as well and pulled away from the Penguins to win 77–57 and move to 6–4 on the season. On December 10, Tennessee Tech visited Breslin to face the Spartans who were without Bridges for the third straight game, but were also without Matt McQuaid due to a head injury suffered in practice. The Spartans started well, led by Eron Harris who scored 20 points including five three-pointers to lead the Spartans to as big as an 18-point lead. MSU played sloppy at points, but still pulled out the win, 71–63, to move to 7–4 on the season. After eight days off for final exams, the Spartans welcomed Northeastern to East Lansing. MSU struggled from the start in their fourth game without Bridges. They