Sophomore guard Alvin Ellis III scored a season-high seven points, and senior guard Travis Trice added five points. Senior guard Andre Hollins leads Minnesota with nine points.

Junior guard Bryn Forbes missed three good shots in the first minute, and freshman guard Lourawls "Tum Tum" Nairn's pass to senior forward Branden Dawson sailed out of bounds on the next offensive possession.

But Valentine became engaged and got the Spartans on the board, blocking a jumper by Hollins and finishing a three point play on the other end. Trice also got off to a strong start, nailing a triple to give MSU an 11-9 lead. Valentine and Trice had all of MSU's points.

Minnesota counteracted a strong start by Trice and Valentine by forcing three turnovers in the first five minutes. The Golden Gophers used six fastbreak points to tie the game at 11 at the first media timeout.

Even worse for MSU, Valentine appeared to injure his right leg right before the timeout, but was able to walk off under his own power.

Ellis checked in for Valentine and reeled off five consecutive points — a triple, and a fastbreak layup off a great outlet feed from Costello — to give MSU an 18-11 advantage.

Valentine checked back in before the next media timeout, and his triple at the 11:13 mark to answer a Minnesota triple made the score 23-17.

Dawson made his defensive presence felt a couple minutes later, blocking a 3-point try by Charles Buggs.

Forbes made his fourth good look from the floor, draining a triple to expand the lead to 26-19.

Minnesota got within two with six minutes to play when Carlos Morris hit a tough fadeaway 3-pointer to trim the score to 29-27.

Valentine hit his third and fourth triple of the night to give MSU control of the game again, 39-32, with 2:15 to play.