Shorthanded Jazz Loses to Shorthanded Warriors in an Exciting Win

The No. 7 Michigan State basketball team easily trounced Minnesota for the second time this season, and the crowd was excited by the junior guard’s incredible three-point shooting burst near the end of the first half.

With 12 points in the first half, all from beyond the arc, Holloman led a well-rounded effort as the Spartans won 73-51 on Tuesday night to record their 13th straight victory. In the 2018–19 season, they won their first nine Big Ten games and started the season with a 13-game winning streak, finishing with an 18-2 record. This accomplishment is their greatest start and longest winning streak since that season.

Later this week, the Spartans (18-2, 9-0 Big Ten) will head to Los Angeles for a two-game road series. They will play USC (12-8, 4-5) at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and UCLA (15-6, 6-4) at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Due to their non-traditional television broadcast, both games will be streamed on NBC’s Peacock app.

Dawson Garcia scored 21 points for Minnesota (11-10, 3-7), a team that had won three straight after losing six straight in league action to start the season.

The defence will start

The game between Minnesota and MSU began with a defensive battle that was marked by a string of mistakes and blocked shots in a haphazard first half.

Though they initially relied on volume shooting, the Spartans finally rediscovered their rhythm from beyond the arc. MSU started to improve its performance. At the time, it was rated 341st out of 355 Division I teams with a 28.7% 3-point shooting percentage, 342nd with an average of 5.5 made 3-pointers per game, and 325th with 19.1 attempts per game.

The Spartans made eight of their twenty-five 3-point tries in this game, which is their highest total since they also made eight 3-pointers against Florida Atlantic on December 21. They have only exceeded this total twice this season, once on December 7 against Nebraska and once on December 4, when they defeated the Gophers 90-72 at Williams Arena, setting a season-high of 11.

Just before the first media timeout of Tuesday’s game, Holloman made the Spartans’ first three-pointer on their fifth try, a pull-up shot from a fair distance over the Gophers’ defenders. The Spartans had a solid 16–6 start thanks to this basket, which culminated in Jaxon Kohler’s first of two three-pointers in the first half.

Both teams had four blocks and four steals in the first 16 minutes and 34 seconds, but Minnesota had nine turnovers to MSU’s five. During this time, Holloman became a significant figure.

With 2:17 left in the half, Holloman made a three-pointer from the right corner with help from Jase Richardson after Carson Cooper missed his attempts at technical foul free throws, allowing MSU to keep possession. Holloman made another three-pointer after Richardson swiftly transferred the ball to him after securing a steal. The Breslin Centre crowd responded enthusiastically when Richardson grabbed a rebound and then found Holloman again, who made his third straight three-pointer.

After that, Holloman had the chance to get a steal and pass to Richardson, who was then fouled. Richardson made both of his free throws, capping a commanding 13-0 scoring run and increasing MSU’s advantage to 22 points. Just before halftime, Holloman helped Szymon Zapala dunk an alley-oop to further highlight their advantage.

“He’s always kind of made big shots against us,” Minnesota coach Ben Johnson explained of Holloman. “Today was no different.”

Since Holloman joined the starting lineup, the Spartans have remained unbeaten, which helped them upset North Carolina in overtime at the Maui Classic.

Izzo is making progress

Since the most recent triumph, MSU coach Tom Izzo has won 352 games in the Big Ten regular season. Izzo would tie the all-time great former Indiana coach Bob Knight, who has 353 victories, if he defeated the Trojans on Saturday. Additionally, if Izzo wins both of the next games on the West Coast, he will have the chance to break this record.

This is the first time the Spartans have finished December and January undefeated in Izzo’s 30-year tenure.