
Spartans Fall Short at Minnesota, 59-56
2/7/2024 12:04:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Minneapolis, Minn. – Michigan State's men's basketball team had a 9-point lead in the second half but could not hold on to it as Minnesota held on for a 59-56 win over the Spartans at Williams Arena on Tuesday night.
Graduate guard Tyson Walker scored a game-high 20 points, adding three rebounds, two assists and two steals to lead the Spartans. Junior guard Jaden Akins added 16 points, three rebounds and two assists, hitting 6-of-11 shots from the floor and 4-of-7 from 3-point land.
Records
Michigan State falls to 14-9 overall and 6-6 in the Big Ten Conference, while Minnesota improves to 15-7 overall and 6-5 in league play.
Recap
Michigan State returns home to the Breslin Center on Saturday, Feb. 10, hosting No. 10/12 Illinois at the Breslin Center. The game tips off at 2 p.m. on CBS, with Andrew Catalon and Steve Lappas calling all of the action.
Graduate guard Tyson Walker scored a game-high 20 points, adding three rebounds, two assists and two steals to lead the Spartans. Junior guard Jaden Akins added 16 points, three rebounds and two assists, hitting 6-of-11 shots from the floor and 4-of-7 from 3-point land.
Records
Michigan State falls to 14-9 overall and 6-6 in the Big Ten Conference, while Minnesota improves to 15-7 overall and 6-5 in league play.
Recap
- The Spartans had led by five points at the break (32-27) and used a run midway through the second half to take a 9-point lead, 45-36, but Minnesota responded and tied the game at 45-all with 8:48 on the clock.
- The teams went back-and-forth over the next six minutes, with three ties and seven lead changes.
- Akins hit a 3-pointer with 5:01 left to give MSU a 50-48 lead with 5:01 left and a driving layup from Walker with 2:48 left gave the Spartans their last lead, 52-51.
- Minnesota's Pharrel Payne tied the game at 52-all on 1-of-2 free throws with 2:25 on the clock and a 3-pointer from Dawson Garcia with 1:27 left gave the Gophers the lead for good at 55-52.
- Senior guard A.J. Hoggard was fouled during a 3-point attempt and he made 2-of-3 shots to cut the lead to 55-54 with 20 seconds left.
- After being fouled, Minnesota's Cam Christie hit two free throws with 18 seconds left and a shot from Hoggard was off the mark with 10 seconds left.
- Elijah Hawkins hit two free throws to make it 59-54 before a Walker layup with 1.7 seconds left closed out the scoring.
- Michigan State had led by five points, 32-27, and used a 9-2 run to take a 45-36 lead on a jumper from sophomore guard Tre Holloman with 13:16 to play, forcing Minnesota to call a timeout.
- Minnesota responded with a 10-0 run and took a 46-45 lead on a free throw from Payne, setting up the final minutes.
- There were five ties and two lead changes over the opening 20 minutes with Minnesota taking a 20-13 lead on a three-point play from Parker Fox at the 10:16 mark.
- The Spartan used an 11-2 run to take a 24-22 lead on a driving layup from Akins with 3:53 left.
- Tied at 27-all, a 3-pointer from Akins and a jumper from Walker gave MSU a 32-27 lead at the break.
- Michigan State hit just 41.2 percent of its free throws (7-of-17).
- After holding Minnesota to 37.0 percent shooting in the first half, including 28.6 percent from 3-point land, the Golden Gophers shot 52.9 percent in the second half, including 55.6 percent from 3-point land.
- The Spartans shot just 34.6 percent in the second half (9-of-26), including 2-of-10 from 3-point land (20.0 percent).
- Michigan State leads the all-time series with Minnesota, 76-62, and is now 28-38 in games played on the road.
- MSU Head Coach Tom Izzo is now 38-13 all-time against the Gophers.
- Izzo now has a career record of 701-289.
- Izzo has a 339-166 career record in Big Ten games.
- Izzo coached his 505th Big Ten regular season games, breaking the all-time conference record of 504 games, set by former Indiana Coach Bob Knight.
- The Spartans are 1-5 on the road this season.
- Michigan State is 13-2 when leading at the half.
- This was just the sixth time (14-6) this year MSU lost while out-shooting its opponent (44.7% to 43.2%).
- MSU is 4-6 when being out-rebounded by its opponent (31-28), including
- This was just the second time this season the Spartans have scored below 60 points.
- It marked the first time this season that Michigan State has held an opponent to fewer than 60 points and lost.
- This was the ninth time this season MSU allowed fewer than 60 points and the fourth time in conference play.
- MSU is now 8-1 when allowing fewer than 60 points and 13-1 when allowing fewer than 70.
- Tyson Walker scored 20 points, his 22nd game in double figures this year and the 96th of his career.
- This was his 10th game this season with at least 20 points.
- Dating back to last season, Walker has scored in double figures in 34-straight games, the longest streak of double-scoring games under Head Coach Tom Izzo.
- Walker now has 1,217 career points at MSU and is 33rd all-time in scoring at Michigan State … He moved Kirk Manns (1986-90) and Ken Redfield (1986-90) on the list and needs 16 more points to pass Adreian Payne (2010-14) for 32nd place.
- Walker has scored 1,897 points in 142 career games (13.4 ppg).
- Jaden Akins scored 16 points, his 16th game in double figures this year and the 29th of his career.
- Malik Hall now has 1,067 points to move past Jumpin' Johnny Green for No. 48 all-time and he needs 15 points to pass Goran Suton (2005-09) for No. 47 all-time.
Michigan State returns home to the Breslin Center on Saturday, Feb. 10, hosting No. 10/12 Illinois at the Breslin Center. The game tips off at 2 p.m. on CBS, with Andrew Catalon and Steve Lappas calling all of the action.
Team Stats
MSU
MINN
FG%
.447
.432
3FG%
.389
.391
FT%
.412
.632
RB
28
31
TO
9
11
STL
6
3
Game Leaders
Scoring
Players Mentioned
Tom Izzo | Men's Basketball Press Conference | Apr. 16 2025
Wednesday, April 16
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Tuesday, March 25
Tom Izzo | Men's Basketball Press Conference | Mar. 18 2025
Tuesday, March 18
Tom Izzo | Men's Basketball Press Conference | March 16, 2025
Sunday, March 16