No. 2 Michigan State (29-3) will now play the victor of the Michigan-Nebraska quarterfinal, played immediately following Michigan State’s win.
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The Michigan Wolverines look for another victory after beating the Iowa Hawkeyes on Thursday. Winners of 12 straight games heading into Friday’s quarterfinal matchup with Wisconsin – the Badgers knocked off 8-seed Maryland on Thursday – Michigan State hasn’t dropped a game since mid-January. The top four seeds will still wait one more day before they find out their opponents for Friday.
“I was disappointed in my team, maybe in myself, too”, Izzo said. She became the fifth Duke player to surpass 1,800 points with her 30th game of at least 20 points.
“Looking at the frickin’ stats and I got 26 minutes, which I’m very frustrated with”, Happ said.
Sophomore swingman Miles Bridges scored 20 points and sophomore point guard Cassius Winston had 17 points to lead the Spartans, the top seed in this event and the second-ranked team in the nation.
While center Michal Cekovsky has certainly been more productive at times in his four seasons than Shaquille Cleare was for two, the 7-foot-1 Slovakian has struggled during the stretch run of his career, especially since coming back after missing three games with a bruised heel.
“I didn’t get anything, that’s the truth”, Bridges said. Michigan State rotated players on Happ, using Nick Ward, Xavier Tillman and Jaren Jackson Jr.to make life hard on the Badgers star in the paint. While the Spartans got the road win on Sunday, they’ll need their leader to play better as postseason play gets started. Defensively, Michigan State yields 64.6 points per game against the opposing teams. “And unfortunately we didn’t have enough today nor enough earlier in the year to be able to keep playing in the NCAA Tournament, which I know everybody in that locker room that was the goal was to try to win this thing to get there”. Happ, who is often a liability late in the game because of his free throw shooting, shot six for seven from the line today. Jordan Murphy added 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Golden Gophers (15-16, 4-14 Big Ten), who have lost 10 of their last 11 games and will be the 11th seed in the conference tournament. Huerter went to the free-throw line with nine seconds left with a chance to tie the score.
The game came down to the wire and was tied at 53 after a Kevin Huerter jumper with just over one minute remaining. He has not forced as many tough three-pointers or passes into traffic, and does not attempt to pick up as many sloppy charging fouls on defense.
With just over four minutes left, freshman sensation Bruno Fernando battled traffic, and muscled his way into the lane to finish a game-tying layup.
Abdur-Rahkman’s 3 with 6:01 left in the second half made it 61-42 for the Wolverines, giving their fans the opportunity to sing and chant “N-I-T” at Nebraska.
Winston hit two 3-pointers during an 11-2 run in the second half – the second with a defender in his face from well beyond the arc – to lead the Spartans (28-3, 16-2).
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Michigan State claimed the No. 2 spot in the poll, followed by No. 8 Purdue, No. 13 Ohio State and No. 15 Michigan.
