The first of Thursday’s four Big Ten men’s basketball tournament games at Target Center created what felt like a home-court advantage for the Gophers.
A few sections filled with fans in maroon and gold cheered during warmups as their mascot, Goldy Gopher, pumped them up with the U band playing in the background.
With Minnesota hosting the tournament for the first time, Ben Johnson’s Gophers took a halftime lead against Michigan State, but they were overmatched in the second half in a 77-67 loss.
“I thought the energy was even better than I expected,” senior Parker Fox said about the Gophers faithful showing up for an 11 a.m. game. “Unfortunately, it didn’t go the way we wanted it to go.”
BOXSCORE: Michigan State 77, Gophers 67
The ninth-seeded Gophers (18-14) had their highest conference finish since 2018-19, but they face a potential end to their season after losing five of the last six games. A bid to the NIT is no guarantee with Ohio State, Iowa and Maryland ahead of them in NET ranking entering Thursday.
The eighth-seeded Spartans (19-13) outscored the Gophers 44-30 in the paint and shot 62% from the field in the second half to advance to play No. 1 seed Purdue in Friday’s quarterfinals.
“We knew it was going to be a grind,” Johnson said. “Kind of a must-win game for both teams. We knew it was going to come down to the details. I just thought in the second half around the midway point, we couldn’t get consecutive stops.”
Minnesota’s players played with a sense of urgency early after jumping out to a 7-0 lead behind Dawson Garcia, who scored 10 of his 19 points in the first half.
There were eight lead changes and four ties before the U pulled ahead 34-32 at halftime. Fox scored nine of his 11 points off the bench in the first half for the Gophers, who shot 50% from the field and scored 10 points off turnovers.
The Spartans split the regular season series with Minnesota, including a 59-55 Gophers victory on Feb. 6 at Williams Arena. That was the last time the Gophers held an opponent under 70 points in a game.
Defensive issues plagued the Gophers in recent losses, especially in a 90-66 loss last weekend at Northwestern. That carried over to Thursday with Michigan State guards Tyson Walker and A.J. Hoggard combining for 32 points mostly on dribble penetration.
Elijah Hawkins’ three-point play after Michigan State was called for basket interference made it 49-44 early in the first half, but the Gophers compounded poor defense with a bit of bad luck offensively.
Hawkins threw an alley-oop to Payne that appeared to be going through the basket before the ball popped out midway through the second half.
The Spartans took advantage with former Cretin-Derham Hall star Tre Holloman nailing a three-pointer during a 15-2 run that was capped by Malik Hall’s layup for a 59-51 lead.
Michigan State’s physicality made it difficult for the Gophers to finish at the rim. Minnesota’s players were either stripped or forced into a tough shot with contact.
Garcia seemed determined to score any way possible, so he threw in a couple off-balanced layups to pull the Gophers within 65-59. Walker answered with nine straight points for the Spartans, who were still playing for an NCAA tournament berth.
“It’s unfortunate we couldn’t come out on top and put ourselves in a position where we control our destiny,” Garcia said.