MSU (21-8 overall, 12-6 Big Ten) will play the winner of Michigan and Northwestern at 11:30 a.m. Friday in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

“I feel like we’re in a good place right now top to bottom, that we’re really playing for each other right now,” MSU head coach Suzy Merchant said.

MSU is a combined 4-0 against the Wildcats and Wolverines this season.

“The Big Ten Tournament is a do-or-die situation,” Merchant said. “It’s back-to-back, tough turnarounds against very good opponents in a venue we don’t play in much, a big arena that might not have our screaming fans filling it to the brim.”

During this 11-game run to end the season, the Spartans have held opponents to an average of 55 points per game.

“I think we just keep proving defensively how strong we are,” senior center Allyssa DeHaan said. “It’s given us a lot of momentum going into the Big Ten Tournament.”

MSU continued to show off its depth and balance as four players scored in double figures, led by DeHaan’s 13. Freshman guard Jasmine Thomas, sophomore forward Lykendra Johnson and senior center Lauren Aitch all scored 12.

“It’s hard to defend us because you don’t know where the scoring is going to come from,” Aitch said. “Everyone on the team on any given night can score 20 points. Everyone’s a threat and that makes it hard.”

After allowing Minnesota (13-16, 6-12) to stay in the game early, the Spartans turned on the accelerator.

Minnesota led 11-10, but MSU then took over, going on a 12-0 run, forcing Golden Gophers head coach Pam Borton to call timeout after a 3-pointer by DeHaan.

The Spartans kept their foot on the gas, going into halftime up 33-17.

Johnson opened the second half scoring with a 3-pointer for the Spartans, but Minnesota staged a small rally. After MSU took a 40-22 lead on a bucket by Johnson, the Gophers’ 7-0 run brought it within 11, 40-29.

Unlike Thursday’s game against Purdue when MSU allowed the Boilermakers get back in the game after facing a double-digit deficit, the Spartans never let the game get back into single digits, going on a 9-2 run to make it 49-31 nine minutes into the half. The Gophers would never get closer than 13.

After Merchant pulled her four seniors with a little more than three minutes left, little-used walk-ons Jasmine Holmes and Tracy Nogle got into the action.

Playing in only their third game each, the two excited the bench and the crowd of 7,181 almost as much as the senior send-off did.

Holmes, a senior guard who will return for her fifth year of eligibility next season, made a nice move for a driving layup, her first field goal of the season to put MSU up, 64-42. Later, Nogle, a freshman guard, drilled a 3-pointer from the corner to give MSU its largest lead at 24 in the final minute.

“We have a lot of momentum,” DeHaan said.

“We’re going to keep that going. We’re happy, we’ve positive. It’s not a negative environment. We know what we have to do.”

Minnesota forward Katie Loberg led the Gophers with 10 points and 11 rebounds in 25 minutes.

Now the focus turns to the Big Ten Tournament, where MSU has not experienced much success under Merchant, going 1-2 in two seasons. The Spartans last won the tournament title since 2005.

“We have a different team (now),” DeHaan said. “We’re all about defense this year and I think that’s going to carry us through.”