ICE HOCKEY
Tough luck hits Spartans in series loss to U-M
The No. 10 MSU hockey team couldn’t have drawn a worse opponent in the quarterfinals of the CCHA Tournament.
The No. 10 MSU hockey team couldn’t have drawn a worse opponent in the quarterfinals of the CCHA Tournament.
Too often this season, regardless of whether it’s a win or a loss, the MSU women’s basketball team has talked about losing focus. With the stakes high and a trip to the Big Ten Tournament championship game on the line, lost focus cost the Spartans dearly.
After such an impressive start, the No. 10 MSU hockey team’s season is likely over much earlier than many would have thought.
With about four minutes remaining in the MSU men’s basketball team’s Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal game Friday, head coach Tom Izzo walked to the end of the bench and spoke briefly with Chris Allen. Normally, that’s presubstitution standard procedure — offer a few words of instruction and send him in to relieve a teammate. You can bet that’s what both Izzo and the junior guard wished the meeting was about.
The No. 5 seed MSU men’s basketball team will start its march to the Final Four in Indianapolis against No. 12 seed New Mexico State at 7:20 p.m. Friday at Spokane, Wash. The Spartans or the Aggies will face the winner of the first round match between No. 4 seed Maryland and No. 13 seed Houston on Sunday.
With its NCAA Tournament hopes on the line, the No. 10 MSU hockey team was controlled by Michigan for the second straight game as the Wolverines defeated the Spartans, 5-3, on Saturday at Munn Ice Arena. The win gave U-M the series victory in the CCHA quarterfinal matchup and likely ends the Spartans’ season, barring an unforeseen at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The Spartans’ most dynamic offensive threat came out of the tunnel after warm-ups and skated for about 30 seconds in front of the MSU bench before heading back into the locker room. An MSU athletics communications official said Tropp stepped on a puck during warm-ups.
Indianapolis – The same group of upperclassmen, captains and leaders who put the MSU men’s basketball team on their back Friday against Minnesota were the same ones that clanked late free throws and ran out of gas down the stretch in the Spartans’ 72-67 loss.
Indianapolis — Two pairs of missed free throws in overtime and clutch shooting from Minnesota hurt the MSU men’s basketball team Friday night as the Spartans lost, 72-67, to the Golden Gophers at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Spartans’ quarterfinal loss in the Big Ten Tournament means they will be off until the start of the NCAA Tournament next week.
Home ice advantage, tournament seedings and season records were put aside Friday night at Munn Ice Arena as the Michigan Wolverines gave MSU an old-fashioned whooping, routing MSU 5-1 in the quarterfinals of the CCHA Tournament. The Spartans likely will need to win the final two games of the best-of-three series to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Indianapolis — With a dominating 76-55 win Thursday against No. 11 seed Penn State in the first round of the men’s Big Ten Tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse, the No. 6 seed Minnesota Golden Gophers advance to face MSU, which defeated Minnesota twice already this year and had a first-round bye. Minnesota and MSU are scheduled to tip-off at 9 p.m. Friday.
MSU junior guard Kalin Lucas was selected to the All-Big Ten first team and sophomore guard Draymond Green was a unanimous selection for the conference’s Sixth Man of the Year, the conference announced Monday night.
In all the excitement and success the MSU men’s basketball program has been subjected to in the past decade, one particular accolade has been missing: a Big Ten Tournament championship.
As the banner commemorating the MSU men’s basketball team’s secondstraight Big Ten title and sixth during head coach Tom Izzo’s Hall of Fame career ascended to the ceiling, the Spartan Brass proudly played MSU Shadows, the university’s alma mater. The only tune more appropriate would have been the rock ballad from Bachman-Turner Overdrive: Takin’ Care of Business.
In his final game at Breslin Center on Sunday, senior forward Raymar Morgan scored a season-high 22 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, kissed the ‘S’ at midcourt and watched a Big Ten Championship banner raise to the rafters in front of Spartan legends Mateen Cleaves and Charlie Bell as the MSU men’s basketball team throttled archrival Michigan, 64-48.
Indianapolis — In her team’s biggest game of the season, Aisha Jefferson delivered. Her teammates, though, were notably absent.
Indianapolis — Iowa, the only team to beat the MSU women’s basketball team during its run to end the regular season, did so again Saturday, knocking the Spartans out of the Big Ten Tournament with a 59-54 win at Conseco Fieldhouse.
With just one regular season game remaining, MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo seems to have had it. Following his team’s two-point victory over conference bottomfeeder Penn State on Thursday, Izzo said he was going to change the way his team practices and subsequently could make dramatic changes to the lineup. “We’ve fought it all year and we’re going to fight it another game only we’re going to maybe fight it in a different way,” Izzo said.
Indianapolis — The MSU women’s basketball team found a way to win without Allyssa DeHaan, who left Friday’s Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal game with Michigan midway through the first half with back spasms.
The MSU women’s basketball team advanced to the Big Ten Tournament semifinals with a 61-50 win against Michigan on Friday afternoon at Conseco Fieldhouse.