The Spartans' win against Minnesota wasn't exactly fit for ESPN Classic, but at this point in the Big Ten season, they'll take it.
"We are in this mode where we have to keep winning," head coach Tom Izzo said. "We've got to find a way. That is the way we did it today - we found a way."
MSU (13-9 overall, 8-3 Big Ten) avoided a disastrous loss with a 69-58 win against Minnesota (9-14, 1-10) on Saturday at Breslin Center. With the win, MSU maintains its hold on second place in the conference, a half-game behind Wisconsin (17-4, 8-2).
"You've got to get wins no matter what. I think today, that's the way we look at it," sophomore center Paul Davis said.
The Spartans trailed by eight at halftime, but gradually chipped away at Minnesota's lead in the second half. Sophomore guard Maurice Ager finally put MSU up for good midway through the second half with his only 3-pointer of the day. The Spartans scored their last 11 points at the free-throw line.
Junior guard Kelvin Torbert said the team came back because it played with more focus in the second half.
"I give us credit for being able to bounce back in that second half," he said. "It wasn't pretty, but we bounced back and got a win."
Torbert scored nine points on 2-of-4 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds, a season high. Junior guard Chris Hill led the team with 20 points, his season high.
The Spartans jumped on Minnesota early, but their offensive intensity quickly faded and the Gophers took advantage. Too often, the Gophers were able to pick off MSU's passes and score on the resulting fast break. Minnesota scored 20 points off MSU's 10 first-half turnovers.
"The lackluster approach offensively in the first half, it's going to get us," Izzo said. "We did not really take a step forward today, and for that, I'm disappointed."
Defensively, the Spartans did show some improvement. Izzo recently has criticized MSU's defense, but he said it looked better in the second half when MSU held the Gophers to 31.6 percent shooting.
Though the Gophers led at halftime, they never were able to maintain an efficient offense. Forward Kris Humphries, who shoulders much of Minnesota's offensive load, was effective but couldn't carry the Gophers for the entire game.
Humphries scored 17 points, five below his season average, to go with his nine rebounds.
"We got a little bit back on track, but not aggressive enough to move the ball and get the shots we needed in the second half," Minnesota head coach Dan Monson said. "They are a good team and it's tough in here and, again, we just didn't get it done and they did."
Minnesota's offensive inconsistency was due in part to MSU's season-high 15 steals, which got its own fast-break offense going. The Spartans scored 14 fast-break points, and Izzo said he was happy to finally see a decent point total in that category.
"That was probably the first game in a while we got some points off our defense," he said.
The win was Izzo's 100th career Big Ten win. He is the 17th coach to do so and only the third to win 100 in the first nine seasons. Former Indiana head coach Bob Knight and Purdue coach Gene Keady won 100 Big Ten games in eight seasons.
MSU's next game is against Purdue at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Breslin.
Joe Guillen can be reached at guillenj@msu.edu.
