Senior guard Travis Walton looks for an opportunity to pass the ball while being guarded by Minnesota guard Al Nolen during the first half of Friday’s Big Ten Tournament game at Conesco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Walton played for a total of 30 minutes during the game. The Spartans defeated the Golden Gophers 64-56 and will go on to play again on Saturday.
Indianapolis — Maybe it’s the pressure, maybe it’s the bright lights. Whatever the reason, Chris Allen sure likes playing in the postseason.
The sophomore guard picked up where he left off in Houston during last year’s Sweet 16, swishing 3-pointers, hitting shots in traffic, and making plays for the MSU men’s basketball team, which dispatched Minnesota 64-56 Friday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse.
“I’ve just been talking a lot more and just trying to do anything I can to stand out and get myself going in different ways,” said Allen, who scored a team-high 17 points. “It’s working.”
With the win, No. 1-seed MSU advanced to the tournament semifinals, where it will take on the winner of the game between No. 4-seed Wisconsin and No. 5-seed Ohio State. No. 8-seed Minnesota, meanwhile, will simply wait and hope it has done enough to earn an NCAA Tournament bid.
“I want to commend and congratulate Michigan State,” Minnesota head coach Tubby Smith said. “That shows why they’re the top team in the league. They really took it to us in that second half.”
Despite leading comfortably throughout the latter period, the Spartans played far from the game MSU head coach Tom Izzo wanted to see. The Spartans committed 16 turnovers, shot a disappointing 19-of-31 from the free-throw line and allowed 12 offensive rebounds.
Even worse, they almost let a double-digit lead with 2:41 left seep through the cracks. After senior center Goran Suton’s free-throws gave MSU a 12-point cushion, Minnesota went on a 7-0 scoring tear in just over a minute to whittle the Spartans’ lead down to 58-53.
Senior guard Travis Walton and Allen, however, each calmly nailed a pair of free throws to seal the victory.
“It wasn’t pretty,” said Izzo, who after the game lobbied for Minnesota to make the NCAA Tournament. “I think you have to give a lot of credit, we played a team that played their heart out. That team is a good team and I don’t think we played as well.
“And yet, having Goran and Raymar (Morgan) in foul trouble and playing so few minutes, I think hurt us a little bit. Thank God for Travis and this guy next to me, Chris Allen, who I thought had his best practice and one of his better games.”
Allen shot 5-of-11 from the field, including 2-of-5 from 3-point range. He did most of his damage off screens, which sprung him open for clean looks against Minnesota’s zone defense.
He scored 12 of his points in the first half, leading an MSU bench brigade that accounted for 25 points in the half and 34 in the game.
Senior forward Marquise Gray finished the game with 11 points, three shy of his season high, while freshman forward Draymond Green added four points.
“It’s tournament time, one-and-done time,“ said Gray, who added five rebounds. “We did a great job of just sticking together with each other. Even in the first half when some of our main guys weren’t scoring or weren’t doing certain things, everybody did just an excellent job of sticking together.”
MSU sophomore guard Kalin Lucas was the only MSU starter who finished in double-figures. Lucas, who on Monday was crowned Big Ten Player of the Year, scored 12 points on 3-of-10 shooting.
After the game, Lucas said he was just relieved his team’s first tournament game was in the books.
“Everyone on the team knew that first game was gonna be a little bit different for us,” he said. “(Minnesota was) at an advantage because they already played.”
Despite leading throughout the second half, the Gophers were in the driver’s seat early on. After Lucas opened the game with a triple, Minnesota guard Lawrence Westbrook scored six straight points to give his team a 9-3 lead.
Minnesota clung to the lead for nearly nine minutes, before Gray put the Spartans back in front with a pair of free-throws he earned after collecting a Durrell Summers missed free-throw with 8:13 left in the half.
Gray finished with more first-half points (nine) than he scored in his last eight games combined. Thanks to the bench, MSU led 33-30 at halftime despite being outrebounded 17-16.
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Morgan and Suton, who both finished scoreless in the first half, combined to score 10 of MSU’s first 15 points in the second half, as the Spartans extended their lead to 10 midway through the second period.
MSU’s game on Saturday is scheduled for 1:40 p.m. and will be televised by CBS.
