Junior guard Kalin Lucas and sophomore forward Delvon Roe walk off the court as time expires in MSU’s 72-67 Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal overtime loss to Minnesota on Friday night at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Indianapolis – With 20 seconds left to play in overtime, sophomore forward Draymond Green missed a free throw, turned and yelled in frustration, epitomizing No. 3 seed MSU’s 72-67 defeat against No. 6 seed Minnesota on Friday night in the quarterfinals of the men’s Big Ten Tournament.
The Spartans went 18-for-34 from the free-throw line in the game, including a 5-for-12 performance in overtime.
“In fairness to our 18-of-34 from the line, that’s never happened,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. “It’s my fault because I ran these guys into the ground.”
Green reached his seventh double-double of the season by scoring 10 points and grabbing 11 rebounds but the 69 percent free-throw shooter only went 2-for-6 from the charity stripe.
On a day where the Big Ten Tournament saw every game go down to the wire, the fact that MSU reached overtime couldn’t have been much of a surprise. MSU was down by as many as 10 points with 8:20 to play in the game but clawed back to tie the game with less than one minute to play.
“That was a very hard-fought, physical game,” Minnesota head coach Tubby Smith said. “But you expect that in tournament play, and I guess (against a) very well-coached and well-disciplined Tom Izzo team. We haven’t had much luck against them, but we were finally able to pull out a win, and we made some great plays down the stretch to get the win.”
The Golden Gophers’ three leading scorers, guard Devoe Joseph (17 points), guard Blake Hoffarber (14) and center Colton Iverson (12), all scored above their season averages.
Joseph didn’t score in the first half but scored eight points in the overtime session, including a 3-point shot after MSU had taken a 58-55 lead.
“He did make some shots, but he put his team on his back and he carried them,” Green said of Joseph. “He hit some tough shots, but tough shots or not, you still have to defend them. He hit some tough shots, and he wasn’t doing that the first game we played them, nor was he doing it the second time we played them.”
Hoffarber was another player who stepped up for the Gophers. After scoring just 10 points and hitting one 3-point shot against MSU in their previous two meetings combined, Hoffarber scored 14 points and hit four 3-point shots on Friday.
Two of Hoffarber’s 3-pointers were in the face of uncontesting junior guard Durrell Summers. Summers only played 24 minutes and just eight in the second half.
Izzo said the absence of junior guard Chris Allen, who was suspended for violating team rules, hurt his team’s defensive performance.
“We just couldn’t guard, and Chris Allen has become our best defensive player,” Izzo said. “You know, the blame should go on, I guess, me and him there because I had to make a tough decision, and the problem when you make decisions is if you can just affect the player, it would be good.
“I just have trouble right now looking at Morgan and (senior guard Isaiah Dahlman) because I had to make a decision that affected them.”
Morgan scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed six rebounds. In the past five games, Morgan has averaged 17 points and nearly 10 rebounds per game.
Minnesota opened up a 50-40 lead with 8:20 to play before the Spartans came back. MSU finished the half on a 15-5 run to send the game into overtime.
In the overtime period, Morgan made an early lay-up and added a free-throw, clearly throwing the momentum in the Spartans’ corner. With his team teetering, Joseph hit a 3-point shot to tie the game and energize his team.
“I just think I was just very composed and I was just very excited to win the game,” Joseph said. “I wasn’t trying to put it in my hands, I was just trying to get the shots. I was in the zone to the point where I wasn’t really thinking too much. I was just playing basketball.”
After Joseph’s 3-pointer, Minnesota scored seven straight points and put the game out of reach.
The win snapped MSU’s eight-game winning streak over the Gophers, which dated back to 2006.
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MSU hasn’t won the Big Ten Tournament since 2000. The Spartans will await their fate Sunday when the NCAA Tournament brackets are announced.
Izzo said he is going to “mix up” things headed into the NCAA Tournament but would center changes around the core of Morgan and Green.
“We have a lot of basketball we still have left to play,” Izzo said. “We’ve got a good team. It’s not a great team yet, but there’s a lot of good teams out there.”
