He burned past Appling, made freshman guard Travis Trice look foolish and slashed through senior guard Brandon Wood.

Sunday was a different story.

“Trey got the best of Keith the first game,” senior forward Draymond Green said. “One thing Keith said was it wasn’t going to happen again. He stepped up to the challenge and did a great job.”

Appling led a team effort that held Burke to 11 points, four assists and forced him to commit four turnovers in the Spartans 64-54 victory.

Appling played stifling D, but when the screens came, centers junior Derrick Nix and sophomore Adreian Payne stepped up admirably.

“The last time we played them, he was able to make a lot of things happen, getting the corner and getting easy shots,” Appling said. “This time around the bigs really stepped out, and he had to stop or make a pass.”

Head coach Tom Izzo, often frustrated with his big men, couldn’t have been more pleased.

“They followed the game plan about as well as they could follow it,” Izzo said. “Keith Appling did a good job on him, but Adreian Payne and Derrick Nix did an excellent job on how we wanted to stop ball screens.”

Nix said they played Burke differently and more aggressively.

“We tried to keep Burke from inside the lane,” he said. “That’s where he can make his best decisions.”

On top of holding Burke to below his averages, the team also held guard Tim Hardaway Jr. to possibly the worst game of his career. He scored four points on 1-for-10 shooting.

Freshman guard Branden Dawson and Wood, who have been harped on by Izzo for their defense all season, spent the game on Hardaway.

“Dawson and Wood definitely stepped up,” Nix said. “Hardaway is a good player, but they defended him pretty solid.”