University of Minnesota Athletics
Men's Basketball Falls at Michigan State
2/21/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
For the first time this season, the Minnesota Golden Gophers have dropped three straight games, following tonight's 74-55 loss in East Lansing, Mich., to Michigan State. The Golden Gophers fall to 14-10 overall and 7-6 in the Big Ten Conference, while the Spartans up their record to 16-10, 7-6 in the league. The two teams, along with Northwestern, are now tied for fifth place in the conference, while Minnesota drops to just 2-8 away from Williams Arena.
The Golden Gophers downed Michigan State 70-67 on Jan. 5 for their first conference victory of the season.
Seniors Dusty Rychart and Kerwin Fleming led the way for Minnesota, scoring 13 points a piece. Rychart was six- of-nine from the field, while grabbing a team-high six rebounds. Fleming was six-of-nine from the free throw line. Rychart has now scored in double-figures in 10 of his last 11 games.
Adam Ballinger paced the Spartans with 20 points and nine rebounds, while Chris Hill and Marcus Taylor added 15 and 11 points, respectively.
Trailing 32-29 at halftime and by as many as 11 early in the second half, the Golden Gophers were able to climb within three points with an 8-0 run at 49-46 following a Kevin Burleson three-pointer with 11:28 remaining. But Michigan State went on an 11-2 spurt to up their advantage to 65-51 with just under five minutes remaining as cruised to the victory. The Spartans made their final five free throw and two field goal attempts in the final 2:05 to seal the victory.
Minnesota made seven of its first nine shots of the game to open a 15-6 advantage. A 9-0 run, capped by a Jerry Holman dunk, provided the early lead. MSU took a 23-21 lead, following a Hill three-pointer with 5:49 remaining in the first half and would not trail again.
The Golden Gophers will continue their two-game road trip as they travel to Penn State on Saturday, Feb. 23 for an 11:15 a.m. contest with the Nittany Lions. The game can be seen on KSTP-Channel 5. Minnesota wraps up the regular season with home games versus Northwestern and Illinois.
Post Game Quotes Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo: "I'm not sure we make it easy, but that was a big win for us. I thought early in the game Marcus (Taylor) got some good looks, but they weren't falling. Chris (Hill) also had some good looks that weren't falling. When your two best shooters have that many good looks and only shoot 7- of-23, and you still find a way to win, I guess that's the most encouraging thing. "You have to give Minnesota credit. Switching to that triangle and two was a big move and they did some good things where they pressured our guards. When we were in foul trouble, especially when Marcus was out of the game, we started to look a little sloppy offensively. But we went back to rebounding well. I thought other than the first five minutes of the game where I think they were 6-of-7, I thought we defended pretty well after that point. I thought our big guys, Al (Anagonye), Adam (Ballinger) and Jason (Andreas) did a pretty good job on (Rick) Rickert and (Jerry) Holman. I thought we defended them well that was the difference in the game. "It's a very good team that we found a way to beat. I'm just happy we're still above water." Minnesota Head Coach Dan Monson: "I was pleased with our effort. Coming off of two losses and heading into a tough environment like this, I was concerned with how we would start the game. I thought we started well and did a lot of things we wanted to do. But as the game wore on, their strength just wore us down. We just couldn't get the ball inside to our guys, and when we did, they (MSU) did a good a job of bumping them out. "We had to hit our jump shots. This is a team that has lived and died by the jump shots all year. When you're 4-of-18 shooting for three's, you're not going to win. "Their strength I thought was the biggest key. It just seemed like every time there was a rebound they ended up with it. I thought our guys gave a great effort, but their strength was the difference tonight
