Indianapolis – With time winding down in the MSU men’s basketball team’s 74-56 victory over Purdue on Friday, the Spartan fans began chanting “We want tacos!”
The game was at Conseco Fieldhouse, not Breslin Center, and the fans were joking that they should get a free taco if the Spartans scored 70 points, as is the case in East Lansing.
In the game following MSU’s win, Penn State and Wisconsin didn’t reach the taco mark — combined.
The Nittany Lions defeated Wisconsin, 36-33, to advance to the Big Ten Tournament semifinals in one of the ugliest college basketball games in recent memory.
The semifinal game will tip-off around 4:05 p.m. on CBS.
“It was just a war, no one could hit a shot, no one,” Penn State guard Talor Battle said after the game. “I’m looking at the stat sheet. First I thought it was just me, and I see no one else could really hit any. It was just an ugly game, but we fought and found a way to win, and that’s what good teams do.”
Battle led the Nittany Lions (18-13) with nine points and will have to be keyed on if the Spartans want to make it to the tournament championship.
The senior Battle is Penn State’s all-time leading scorer and finished the regular season second in the conference in scoring with 19.8 points per game. Penn State, as a team, was the lowest scoring team in the conference with 63.2 points per game.
While the Nittany Lions are coming off their worst scoring output of the season, MSU (19-13) is coming off perhaps its most complete game all season.
“This morning I just kept harping on we’ve all been there before and we’re better than we’ve been playing for a variety of reasons,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said Friday. “But we beat a really good team tonight, and I don’t think Purdue played really well.”
The Spartans are the third No. 7 seed to make the Big Ten Tournament semifinals and will look to make their first championship appearance since 2000 – the last time they won the tournament.
By all accounts, MSU safely is in the NCAA Tournament. Penn State is right at the edge, where a win could put them in, but a loss could knock them out.
The Spartans and Nittany Lions split their regular season meetings, but if there’s one thing this March already has proven, it’s to expect the unexpected.
“Going into (Saturday), our focus will not be if people say we’re in, our focus will not be to stay in the tournament,” junior forward Draymond Green said Friday. “Our focus will be to come out and take it one game at a time like we’ve been doing.”
“Like I said yesterday, the NCAA Tournament committee is going to decide whatever they want to decide. We can’t control that. The only thing we can control is winning basketball games here, and we’re going to keep on taking it one game at a time.”
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