No. 10 Michigan State drops stunner to Minnesota after poor first half

Welcome back, February slump. No week gives Tom Izzo’s Michigan State teams trouble like the first week of February. And 2026 is no exception.

Trailing for all but a minute of Wednesday night’s game at Minnesota’s Williams Arena, No. 10 Michigan State dropped a stunner, 76-73, as the Gophers took command with early 3-point shooting. Despite a comeback bid in the final four minutes, the Spartans never recovered from their lowest scoring first half of the season.

Snapping a seven-game skid, Wednesday’s win is Minnesota’s first top 10 upset after 10 straight losses, the last being a Jan. 16, 2021, win over No. 7 Michigan, 75-57.

Michigan State, meanwhile, lost back-to-back games for the first time this season after Friday’s loss to Michigan. Those are the first back-to-back losses for MSU since the first week of February last year, when it lost two games to Southern Cal and UCLA.

On a night the offense struggled to produce with regularity, Coen Carr led Michigan State (19-4, 9-3 Big Ten) in scoring with 16 points. Freshman wing Jordan Scott scored 15 points in his first career start, while Trey Fort added four 3-pointers off the bench. And Jaxon Kohler added nine points and hauled in eight rebounds of a 39-23 advantage on the glass.

After averaging 19.8 points per game over the past 10 starts, point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. scored just 10 points, but had 11 assists.

Jaylen Crocker-Johnson led Minnesota in scoring with 22 points as he hit four 3-pointers and teammate Bobby Durkin hit three of his own. The Gophers (11-12, 4-8) hit 10 3-pointers as a team and got all 76 points from its starters.

Michigan State’s 21-point first half was its lowest scoring start this season, and the fourth time in the past five games it scored below 30 points in the first 20 minutes. An abysmal 8-for-24 shooting from the floor explained a lot of that, as did 2-for-9 shooting from deep.

Michigan State started hitting 3s in the second half. Jordan Scott got one from the corner in his first collegiate start. Kohler followed him up a few feet to the right. Unfortunately for the Spartans, Minnesota stayed hot from deep, too. Durkin, forward, made his third. Then Crocker-Johnson made his fourth 3 of the game with 16:07 to play. Michigan State hit four of its first six shots of the second half, but a 43-33 deficit still loomed with 15:52 to play.

Scott stayed hot, though, with five straight points including another 3 with 14:48 to play. That cut it to a five-point difference.

That’s where things stood at 13:28, when both coaches’ blood boiled over a call. Initially, referees called a foul on Minnesota guard Langston Reynolds for shoving Fears But Minnesota coach Niko Medved called for a review, which showed Fears kick Reynolds with a kick between his legs.

Just days after Michigan coach Dusty May sent up warning shots for Fears “dangerous” plays against the Wolverines, referee Keith Kimble called a technical on Fears, and Minnesota hit the free throws to go up 47-40.

Izzo subbed out Fears after the play, but he didn’t have Divine Ugochukwu to draw on after a first half foot injury. Denham Wojcik checked in and ran the point for a brief spell before Fears checked back in at 11:44 — not before Wojcik took a foul of his own off the ball.

Fort hit his second 3 of the game to snap more than four minutes of scoreless offense for Michigan State at 10:04, but Minnesota stayed up double digits with a burst from Asuma and a 3 from Cade Tyson. Tyson converted an and-one to put Minnesota up 58-47 with 7:43 to play, Michigan State’s time to fend off the upset running thin.

Minnesota just kept rolling. Tyson drew the opening points of a 12-4 run, interrupted only by two Carr dunks, including eight points from Reynolds to put Minnesota up 67-51. Fears sat on the bench, meanwhile, with Wojcik on the court as the clock wound down inside of four minutes.

In the final three minutes, Carr led a big surge for Michigan State, scoring eight points during a 9-2 run that made it 69-60 with 1:35 to play. Fears checked back in with 1:50 to play, and he hit Carr inside the paint with 1:17 looking to get even closer. Instead, a miss gave Minnesota the ball. Scott hit a 3 off an inside-out feed from Ward to make it a six-point game with 59.6 seconds to play.

After Tyson split free throws on the next possession, Fort hit another 3 to get as close as four, then he hit another 3 after scoring possessions each way to make it a two-point, 73-71 game with 19.6 to go. Asuma hit free throws off a Fears foul to go up four again, and Kohler missed a 3-pointer as the clock hit 6.8 seconds.

If Michigan State looked to shake off Friday’s rivalry loss to Michigan, then there was a lot to be desired in Wednesday’s start — another supposed rivalry, at least of the corporate-manufactured variety as proclaimed by a Venmo sticker on the Williams Arena hardwood.

The Spartans trailed Minnesota 15-5 in the first seven minutes, giving up a 10-1 run including 3-pointers ceded to forwards Crocker-Johnson and Durkin. By the midpoint of the half, the score stood 17-8. Of Michigan State’s first eight points, the only starter to score was Scott — in his first start — with a long jumper to open the scoring. Three turnovers in the first five minutes proved costly at both ends.

A transition 3-pointer from Kur Teng gave Michigan State a pulse after three minutes, eight seconds of scoreless offense. Then Jeremy Fears Jr. drew his first points down low after swiping a steal off Reynolds. Free throws from Scott made it 20-14 Minnesota with 7:11 to play.

Part of Minnesota’s control came from strong shooting outside. The Gophers hit five of their first 10 3-pointers, including another from Crocker-Johnson over Ugochukwu at 6:45. Ugochukwu subbed out to have a trainer look at a cut on his ankle, and the Michigan State shooting guard went to the training room for more treatment.

Michigan State, meanwhile, struggled to shoot out of Minnesota’s zone, including a pair of missed 3s from Fears and Kohler, who also pulled up a long 2 and missed at 4:12. Center Carson Cooper took an identical shot in the final minute of the half that didn’t hit either. The Spartans shot 8of 24 from the floor in the first half.

Cam Ward proved Michigan State’s best threat with five points in the half, cutting the deficit to 23-18 with a hard layup in the paint. But another 3 from Crocker-Johnson kept the Gophers in charge. Fort matched him on the other end, but then he fouled Minnesota guard Isaac Asuma for an and-one that gave Minnesota three points the old fashioned way.

Another 3 from Durkin made it 32-21 Minnesota with 20.1 seconds to play, the seventh 3-pointer for Minnesota in the half. Izzo called a timeout to draw up the final play of the half. It was a missed 3 for Fort — one of seven by his team on nine attempts — at the end of the clock to mark another scoreless two minutes, nine seconds to close out the half.

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