Jaren Jackson Jr. scored a career-high 27 points on 10-for-14 shooting for second-ranked Michigan State, and the Spartans cruised to their ninth consecutive victory by beating Minnesota 87-57 on Tuesday night.
The Spartans (25-3, 13-2) notched their best 28-game record under coach Tom Izzo and pulled within a half-game of first-place Ohio State in the Big Ten despite just five points in 25 minutes from star Miles Bridges.
Nick Ward had 13 points and nine rebounds and Cassius Winston pitched in 12 points for the Spartans, who made their first six 3-point attempts and finished 14 for 22 from behind the arc.
Isaiah Washington scored 18 points and Jordan Murphy added 16 points and seven rebounds for the Gophers (14-14, 3-12), who lost their eighth straight game.
When the Big Ten schedule was finalized over the summer, this game looked like one of the marquee matchups that would help shape the conference race; that was before Minnesota fell apart in early January.
Any long shot the Gophers had of shocking the Spartans was lessened significantly when starters Amir Coffey (shoulder) and Dupree McBrayer (shin) were again held out of the lineup. Coffey has missed 10 of the last 12 games. McBrayer, after playing through the pain for several weeks, sat out for the second straight time.
Then whatever mystery about the outcome that might have still lingered at tipoff was erased by Michigan State’s long-range shooting. Winston swished the first three 3s, Jackson knocked down the next two, and Bridges hit one, his only made field goal of the first half, to build an 18-6 lead in less than five minutes.
There’s much more to the Spartans than a bunch of outside shooters, though.
Ward made his burly presence felt with a jarring screen to the shoulder that made Gophers point guard Nate Mason wince in pain on the bench after being subbed out. He contributed a three-point play after converting a power layup and then threw down a dunk on the next possession. Jackson, the only freshman in the otherwise-all-sophomore starting lineup, added three blocked shots to his Big Ten-leading total.
The Spartans, who won their previous three games by three points each, had a 49-23 rebounding advantage. They padded their 18-point average victory margin, third in the country entering the night, with a dominant performance from start to finish.
(info and photo courtesy of Gopher Sports)