– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN — The Minnesota men’s basketball team came into tonight’s game playing almost as well as any other team in the Big Ten, a threat to any team residing at the top of the conference.
The most important word in that previous sentence is almost. The Gophers, nor anyone else in the Big Ten and probably the nation, is playing as well as their opponent, Michigan State, and the Spartans once again displayed the form that has them as good as anyone to make it to the Final Four, and then possibly more.
Michigan State’s balanced scoring attack and stout defense was too much for the Golden Gophers, as the Spartans opened up a lead as much as 22 points in the first half and won the game by that same margin, a 73-51 decision that game the Spartans their 13th consecutive victory. Tre Holloman scored 12 points to lead Michigan State, with Jaden Akins and Xavier Booker each scoring 10 points.
The Spartans scored the first six points of the game, led by double digits by the 9:41 mark of the first half, and held a double-digit lead for the final 23:14 of the contest.
Dawson Garcia led all scorers with 21 points for the Gophers, who saw their three-game winning streak — their longest conference win streak in four seasons under head coach Ben Johnson — snapped. Two of those victories in that stretch came at home against then No. 15 Oregon and No. 20 Michigan, the latter coming when Garcia hit a 35-foot three at the buzzer.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Tuesday evening’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Aaron J. Thornton. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 22 pictures in total.
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