Michigan State will look to bounce back from an emotional setback when it takes on Minnesota on Wednesday night in Big Ten play at Minneapolis.
The No. 10 Spartans (19-3, 9-2 Big Ten) lost their rivalry contest against then-No. 3 Michigan last Friday and the subject matter still circled around that contest on Monday.
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo and Michigan coach Dusty May each accused the other program of dirty play during a contest won 83-71 by the Wolverines.
After exchanging barbs with May, Izzo was attempting to move forward.
“This is what it’s supposed to be,” Izzo said. “And you know what? Michigan is over. I don’t care what Dusty says. I don’t care what they say.”
The contest showed the Wolverines were the better squad while they were ending the Spartans’ seven-game winning streak.
Michigan State trailed at the half by 16 points — its largest halftime deficit of the season — while giving up its second-most points of the campaign.
Spartans big man Coen Carr knew the film wasn’t going to be pretty.
“It’s going to show us our little mistakes,” Carr said. “I know we’re going to be disappointed when we watch the film just to see how many of those mistakes are fixable. It’s just the fact that we have to do it, be conscious of it, and be smart about it.”
Jeremy Fears Jr. scored a career-high 31 points and added seven assists, five rebounds and four steals against the Wolverines. Fears leads Michigan State with averages of 14.9 points and 8.8 assists to go with a team-best 28 steals.
“We gave them a lot of easy baskets,” Fears said. “Whether it was transition, they had some fouls, some and-ones, and offensive rebounds. Just a lot of easy baskets.”
Jaxon Kohler averages 13.1 points and a team-best 9.1 rebounds.
Minnesota is slumping with seven consecutive losses under first-year coach Niko Medved.
The Golden Gophers (10-12, 3-8) have lost in overtime on two occasions and by four or fewer points three other times during the seven-game stretch.
On Sunday, Minnesota lost 77-75 at Penn State when Kayden Mingo of the Nittany Lions converted a short driving shot with 1.4 seconds to play.
“It’s frustrating,” Medved said. “We have had a chance in every one of these games and we just needed one more play. I would have loved for this game to go to overtime here and take our chances.”
The Golden Gophers recovered from an 11-point deficit to knot the score but were unable to land that elusive victory.
“Every one of those games we have been right in, and we had a chance to win,” Medved said. “We are just not finding a way to get over the hump.”
Langston Reynolds scored 18 points against Penn State, while Cade Tyson tallied 17 and Bobby Durkin had 16. Durkin is averaging 17.3 points over the past three games to raise his average to 9.3.
Tyson leads the Golden Gophers with a 19.3 average. Tyson has knocked down 40 3-pointers, one behind Durkin for the team lead. Isaac Asuma (39) and Jaylen Crocker-Johnson (37) are close behind.
The Spartans have won 11 of the past 13 meetings, including both of last season’s matchups.
–Field Level Media
