MINNESOTA GOLDEN GOPHERS MEN'S BASKETBALL TEAM FALLS TO MICHIGAN STATE

Unable to recover from a disastrous first half, the Minnesota men’s basketball team fell to 14th-ranked Michigan State 76-47 Wednesday night at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, MI.

The 19th-ranked Gophers, who went without a field goal for the first six minutes of regulation, trailed by 26 at halftime and by as many as 35 in the second half before succumbing to the Spartans.

Devoe Joseph paced Minnesota with 11 points while Blake Hoffarber and Paul Carter added seven points each. Durrell Summers scored 17 of his game-high 21 points in the first half to lead the Spartans (18-4 overall, 8-2 Big Ten) to victory. Chris Allen added 13 points and Kalin Lucas chipped in with 10 points and four assists.

Wednesday night’s game was touted as a first-place showdown. With Minnesota fresh off an impressive home victory over Illinois and the Spartans coming off two consecutive home losses to Northwestern and Penn State, the Maroon and Gold had an opportunity to sit atop the conference standings with a win.

Those hopes, however, quickly vanished in an atrocious shooting first half.

The Gophers (18-4, 6-4) went 4-of-23 from the field (17.4 percent) in their lowest-scoring first half of the season. Meanwhile, Tom Izzo’s squad – despite being without the services of Raymar Morgan (12.3 ppg) - shot 53.3 percent over the first 20 minutes of play (16-of-30) on their way to a 42-16 lead heading into the locker room.

Minnesota trailed 13-1 five and a half minutes into the game but an 8-2 spurt by the Gophers cut Michigan State’s lead to 15-9 midway through the first stanza. That, however, would be as close as Minnesota would come. The Spartans proceeded to go on a 17-0 run capped by a thunderous dunk by Summers to take a 30-9 lead with 5:52 left in the half.

Michigan State’s 26-point halftime lead reached 30 moments into the second half and the Spartans led by 35, 54-19, following a layup by Travis Walton with 14 minutes left in regulation.

The Gophers return to action Saturday night when they travel to Columbus, Ohio to challenge Ohio State.

This is what Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo had to say after the game.

"It's a little different than last time I was here. I told Tubby after the game, I thought that was the best half of basketball that we played this year. We came out defensively and I think Travis Walton set the tempo. Kalin (Lucas) played very good defense and got the running game going and we did that early on. Even though Kalin didn't shoot it very well, I thought he got the ball to some guys, especially Durrell. Our inside guys did a very good job early. Our defense caused our offense and our offense was our running game and I thought that was the difference. It felt great to play 40 minutes of basketball instead of 20 or 15 and that was the battle cry in the huddles. We beat a very good team that didn't play as well tonight. That is not the way they usually play and they have played well lately. It was our night tonight and that is the way it is in our league. It is still a very good Minnesota team and we did a pretty good job on their key guys like Nolan, Westbrook and Johnson. I thought that was the big difference in the game. You watch our energy level against Northwestern and maybe it didn't seem to be there and maybe theirs wasn't there tonight. We are going to take the win but we understand that wasn't the real Minnesota team. As we take the win, we realize that we have a lot of work ahead of us but this was a good start and a good stepping stone.

On keeping the lead and increasing it...

"One of the things I've talked about in the first three time-outs was if we were going to be mature enough to learn from our mistakes of the past. I didn't want to bring them up but I think that is part of the growing process especially with our young guys. Are we going to learn from what we did against Northwestern and Penn State where we had some leads and didn't' take care of them? I thought we checked well and didn't give up a basket and that was huge for us. That was the battle cry at halftime, let's see if we can play a complete game. What I really like was that even though Kalin (Lucas) didn't shoot it that well and a one time he gave up a shot and I asked him why and I think he had a feel that it wasn't quite there and that showed maturity on his part. All of our bigs played well too. When you look at the numbers we put in there and the number of guys considering Goran wasn't 100 percent, we got a chance to give him a rest which I think is very important so I think it was a total team effort and maybe we learned a little bit at least for one night.

On Goran Suton...

He did a good job. He and Delvon, he was doing some good things too. He had some big-time rebounds early. So did Goran. They both only played 19 minutes. Goran responded pretty well in practice. He had an injury and he battled through it and that speaks volumes for him. I thought we were nervous before the game. The locker room was kind of quiet and I said its ok to be a little unsure of themselves but tried to tell them reasons we should be sure of ourselves because we've been there before and done it before. I pointed out that G has to play and he has to play well and sure enough, he did.

On what the "real" Michigan State team is...

I think I know what it is if we have all the parts and practice together. I think it is a team that can defend very well. I think it is still one of our better shooting teams even though we haven't always shot consistently. I think it's a great rebounding team and a great running team. We were a little confused a couple times with Raymar (Morgan) out and guys in different lanes. That is the part that has been frustrating a little bit is different pieces that have been out. So I don't think we have seen the (real) Michigan State team yet. Tonight we played very well, so let's not take anything away from us. Let's not act like Minnesota played their best either. I think we are a team that can run, defend and rebound and those are good things to build on and the consistency as you know hasn't been there for different reasons, ones I don't like as much and that is what we need to correct."

This is what Tubby Smith had to say after the game.

Opening Statement.

Hats off to Michigan State, they certainly proved why they are one of the best teams, if not the best team, in this league so far. They were focused and ready to play and we never seemed to get on track. I felt like we were intimidated from the start. We were missing shots inside and I thought a lack of physicality and a lack of aggressiveness cost us early on in the game; and throughout the game. Their best guy on the court, Durrell Summers, hit two threes right off the bat, we did kind of gathered ourselves, but we never seemed to be put together. I thought we would do a better job defensively and I thought we would rebound better, two areas that we needed to do if we ever wanted to have any chance of competing with them. And then when you had the type of shooting night that we had, it makes for a long, long evening.

On what he tells his team after a loss like this.

Well the thing I was concerned about was our effort. That's when you look at it and say, `they just out-worked us.' They were getting every loose ball, every rebound and they were just quicker to the ball than we were. We couldn't get our hands on it and we couldn't retrieve it. I just told them that I thought we got out-worked.

On the lack of offense inside...From the beginning, I thought they really were very physical with Ralph (Sampson) and Colton (Iverson). Again they are learning, but that's one of the things that the Michigan State teams' physical interior post players will do. They're going to body you and bump you. When you don't capitalize when you get it inside, that means they can really stay out on your shooters. I thought they really dictated the tempo - obviously fast-break, and that was one of the main things we had to stop, and we couldn't stop that either.