IOWA CITY, Iowa - Michigan State came back to survive on the road against a hot-shooting Iowa team on Tuesday.Now, it will have a chance to make a statement at home on Saturday.The Spartans came back from eight points down in the second half to hold off Iowa for a 96-93 win on Tuesday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.The esape sets up a Saturday top-five showdown at Breslin Center against first-place Purdue .Michigan State will have the chance to move within a game of first place in the Big Ten standings in that contest.But first, the Spartans had to overcome a night that included some of its worst defense of the season and a litany of second-half fouls.After going into halftime up by six, Michigan State fell behind by as many as eight, and trailed by five points with 4:24 left.Big Ten title race set to heat up this week The Spartans chipped away at that lead until Kenny Goins hit an open 3-pointer - the third 3-pointer of his Spartans career - to put his team up by two with two minutes left.After Iowa answered with a basket, Miles Bridges hit two free throws with 1:02 left to give his team the lead.Michigan State's defense then at last came up big on the ensuing possession, as Joshua Langford forced an air ball shot with 31 seconds left.The Spartans went up by three on free throws, and Bridges stole an inbound pass with six seconds left and was poised to seal the win.But after he missed both free throws with three seconds left, Michigan State had to watch as a potential game-tying Iowa shot that hit off the rim.The win is Michigan State's seventh in a row, as the Spartans moved to 23-3 overall and 11-2 in the Big Ten.Bridges led Michigan State with 25 points, followed by 17 from Nick Ward, 15 from Langford and 11 from Jaren Jackson Jr.After a promising start to the game, Michigan State unraveled in the second half as the fouls piled up and the defense looked as bad as it has all season.The Spartans had picked up seven fouls less than five minutes into the second half.Those fouls also sent both of the Spartans' starting big men, Jackson and Ward, to the bench for an extended stretch.While those two sat, the Hawkeyes hit 10 of 12 field goals in one stretch of the second half.They started that stretch down by four points and finished it with a 3-pointer that put them up by eight points, at the 8:08 mark of the second half.Spartans point guard Cassius Winston also sat for nearly nine minutes in the second half as Iowa extended its lead.But starting with Goins' 3-pointer, the Spartans were able to put together their best closing two minutes of the season and avoid what would have been the team's worst loss of the year.