The 2 reasons Michigan State basketball was able to close out Minnesota win

Michigan State basketball was able to hold on for a win over Minnesota on Thursday night because of these two reasons.

Michigan State basketball thankfully picked up a win against Minnesota on Thursday night 76-66. The game was pretty ugly for the most part with the Spartans not playing their best ball. However, when it came to crunch time, MSU was able to close out Minnesota in impressive fashion on both ends of the floor.

Here are the two things Michigan State did extremely well to close this game out and seal the win.

1. Holding Minnesota scoreless from the field

The final 5:39 of this game is arguably the most impressive the Spartans’ defense has looked all season. Minnesota hit a jump shot with 5:39 remaining to tie the game at 62. This was the last field goal that the Gophers made in this game. Minnesota did score four more points, but they were all from the free throw line.

Elite defense is how you close out extremely tight games, and MSU turned it up when it needed it most. This also came at a time when Minnesota forward Dawson Garcia was scoring whenever he wanted as well. So to stop him, and the rest of the Gophers, completely was no small feat.

2. The Tyson Walker show

Tyson Walker was having a pretty average game until the final few minutes. He finished with 21 points, but most of those came at the very end. With 3:38 to play, he only had nine points. That changed fast as he went on to score 12 of the Spartans’ final 14 points, including 10 straight at one point.

During this stretch of the game as well, Walker outscored Minnesota on his own 12-4. We all know he is this team’s go-to player, especially at the end of games but I was unsure how he would respond this time after having a below-average scoring game up to this point. But Walker proved once again how great he is and helped MSU win this game.

MSU’s stellar defense and gutsy finish from Walker make this team almost impossible to beat. This insane run on both ends of the floor isn’t likely to happen at the same time often, but we all saw how good Michigan State basketball can be when it happens.

Now we just have to hope we see this more often and consistently throughout each game.