MSU beats Minnesota in B1G tourney
Purdue on tap today as Michigan State looks to make March Madness statement
MINNEAPOLIS >> Tom Izzo looked as mad as he’s been all season with his point guard late in the first half after A.J. Hoggard turned the ball over with Michigan State down by two.
“I was doing dumb s—,” Hoggard said. “It’s stupid s—.”
It’s the type of stuff he and Michigan State can’t afford to do if they want to go on any sort of a run this month.
But in the second half, Hoggard played the way the Spartans needed him to as he and the other veterans helped lead No. 8 Michigan State to a 77-67 win over No. 9 Minnesota in the second-round of the Big Ten Tournament.
With the win, the Spartans can go to sleep at night rest assured that Izzo’s NCAA Tournament streak will be extended to 26.
“It gave us a little breather, man,” Tre Holloman said.
Thursday was also one of their best collective efforts all season, with contributions coming from up and down the roster, which should bode well moving forward as they prepare for No. 1 Purdue today in the quarterfinals.
Hoggard didn’t miss all day, going 6-for-6 from the field and 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. He scored 13 of his team-high 17 points in the second half. He also handed out four assists with no turnovers over the final 20 minutes to help the Spartans eliminate the Gophers from the conference tournament and likely crush their hopes of going dancing.
Hoggard didn’t do it alone. The bench, notably Xavier Booker, Jaxon Kohler and Holloman, helped keep them in the game in the first half and for some of the second. But Hoggard, Tyson Walker, Malik Hall and Jaden Akins were critical down the stretch.
Michigan State closed out the game by outscoring Minnesota 33-18 over the final 12:31.
“Jaden Akins made big plays defensively, but A.J. ran the show,” Izzo said. “Tyson made some shots. Malik, we used him as a point forward down there, and he made some big-time plays.”
It’s what Michigan State has been searching for all season.
“It’s been an interesting year in a lot of fashions, but I said early that you win with veterans and you win with your key guys doing the job,” Izzo said. “I said we have a veteran backcourt, we’ve got a veteran in Malik, we’ve got a veteran coach.”
Michigan State didn’t start the way it’d hope to. The Spartans missed their first three field goals, and Carson Cooper missed his first three free throws before sinking one to put his team on the board, down 7-1.
Booker provided a bit of a spark for the Spartans. He had back-to-back dunks to pull Michigan State within two of the Gophers. The Spartans took their first lead of the game at the 13:25 mark off a Jaxon Kohler layup.
The game was a pendulum swing for most of it. There were 11 lead changes and the score was tied six times.
Minnesota led 34-32 at halftime after the Spartans went scoreless for the final two minutes. Some of it was due to sloppy play.
Hoggard got an earful from Izzo, but he said his coach’s fire fueled him to make amends in the second half.
“It kind of motivated me because especially in Big Ten play, games are close, especially tournament time, everybody’s playing for the same thing,” Hoggard said. “We’re not going to be naive to us being on the bubble and wanting to move up and do things like that. … We knew what it took and no time for mistakes, especially in March. There’s no ‘my bads, my faults.’”
There was a moment in the second half, though, where it seemed like the Spartans were starting to unravel.
After Cam Christie knocked down a go-ahead 3, Holloman was whistled for a foul on Elijah Hawkins’ layup that Kohler got caught goaltending.
Hawkins converted on the free throw to make it a three-point play and give Minnesota a 49-44 lead with under 13 minutes to go and boosted the spirits of a crowd that heavily favored the Gophers.
But Michigan State did what it’s done so many times already this season: The Spartans fought back, relying on mostly their guards to dig them out of yet another hole they found themselves in.
Hoggard responded to Hawkins’ 3-point play with a 3. On the other end, Jaden Akins grabbed a rebound off a Garcia missed 3. Malik Hall made a layup and the free throw. And they didn’t stop there.
Hall, who was limited because of foul trouble, scored seven points in the span of about five minutes. His drive to the basket made it 61-52 for the largest lead between either team at that point in the game.
The Gophers never got within six points of the Spartans from there on out.
Walker finally got it going. He scored eight of his 15 points in the final 4:37.
Walker picked off Hawkins, and Hoggard threw down a breakaway dunk that put an exclamation point on the win.
In several games this season, Michigan State had issues with closing games strong, but that wasn’t the case Thursday.
What once looked like the game would be a sprint to the finish ended up in a comfortable outcome for the Spartans.
“We didn’t close out that we should have won or could have won by larger margins throughout the year… Knowing what time of year it is, and knowing what these games mean. It’s win or go home,” Hoggard said. “Now we’ll be sitting at home from now until Sunday hoping our name gets called — we didn’t want to be in that position — so we knew it was time to take care of business.”
It wasn’t always pretty, but Michigan State survived to play another day, and that’s all that matters at this point.
“I’m not comfortable at all. I want to win games,” Hoggard said. “I want to leave here with no doubt when we leave Minnesota, and I plan to be here until Sunday.”
The Spartans will now get another crack at trying to take down Goliath. The Spartans played Purdue two weeks ago in Mackey Arena and lost by only six in what was a hard-fought battle.
“We played them already before. We know what type of guys they have, we know what their guys can do,” Booker said. “So just got to watch film from the last game, kind of pick off the things that we can improve on and improve on it and execute (today).”