Summers outscores Minn. in first half on way to MSU rout

The only question following Wednesday night’s game between the MSU men’s basketball team and Minnesota was which Durrell Summers highlight play would find itself on the chopping room floor.

The sophomore guard continued to fill in more than admirably for junior forward Raymar Morgan, scoring a game-high 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting as the No. 13 Spartans (18-4 overall, 8-2 Big Ten) bounced back from a two-game home losing streak in dominating fashion, throttling No. 19 Minnesota 76-47 at Breslin Center.

By the time the Golden Gophers (18-4, 6-4) scored their first field goal of the game nearly six minutes in, Summers had already made three 3-pointers.

“That was real important, because I think in the beginning we kind of broke them a little bit,” Summers said. “I was coming off screens and I was open, took the shot and they fell, so it got me a little energized.”

From then on, the first half was MSU’s own version of SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays, with Summers in the lead role.

Five minutes into the game, sophomore guard Kalin Lucas (10 points, four assists) threw a pass from half-court to Summers, who laid the ball in to complete the play.

With 8:57 left in the half, Summers picked off a pass from Minnesota’s Colton Iverson at half-court and dribbled down for a one-handed jam.

Less than a minute later, freshman forward Delvon Roe stole the ball at the free throw line, dribbled past half-court and threaded a bounce pass to sophomore guard Chris Allen, who finished the play with a reverse layup.

“This is the type of game I like to play right here,” Roe said afterward. “We’re getting after them defensively, we’re diving on the floor for loose balls, we’re out there rebounding, blocking shots, running the lanes, alley-oop dunks. Just a fun game to be involved in and a fun game for (the fans) to watch.”

The next big play came when senior guard Travis Walton stole the ball and fired it to Lucas, who dribbled under MSU’s basket. Lucas then turned and flipped the ball up for Summers, who threw the ball through the hoop to put MSU up 30-9.

The game spun out of hand from there, as the Spartans ended the half with a 42-16 lead and Summers (17 first-half points) outscored the Gophers by himself.

Summers came out of halftime and scored MSU’s first four points, as the Spartans went up by 30 points. MSU held close to a 30-point margin for the remainder of the game as Minnesota (29 percent shooting) couldn’t find anything but iron.

“Our defense caused our offense and our offense was our running game, and I thought that was the difference,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said.

“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 who didn’t play as well tonight.”

Allen broke out of his recent shooting slump by shooting 4-for-8 from the field and hitting two treys to finish with 13 points.

Senior center Goran Suton and Roe each had six points and seven rebounds. Walton had five assists and four steals, also holding Minnesota’s leading scorer Lawrence Westbrook (13.9 points per game) to six points on 2-for-7 shooting.

Devoe Joseph picked up Westbrook’s scoring slack, scoring 11 points to lead the Gophers.

Morgan, dressed in street clothes, sat out the entire game due to a sickness that has been hampering him since Jan. 16.

MSU closes its three-game home stand at 4 p.m. Saturday against Indiana (6-15, 1-8) at Breslin Center.