Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament: Day 2 recap

Minneapolis is the home for the 2024 Big Ten tournament.

Author:
Joe Nelson for Bring Me The Sports
Updated:
Mar 14, 2024 11:34 PM EDT
Original:
Mar 14, 2024

In this story:

Day 2 of the Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament in Minneapolis is in the books and Michigan State, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Indiana all advanced to join Purdue, Illinois, Nebraska and Northwestern in Friday’s quarterfinals.

Below are game recaps in the live update form that we provided.

#8 Michigan State 77, #9 Minnesota 67

We're underway at Target Center! Slimmer crowd for the early game, but there's a heavy Gophers contingent in the crowd.
Dawson Garcia hits a 3 for the first points of the contest.
Gophers up here 7-5 early on. Xavier Booker has four points for the Spartans. Pharrel Payne and Mike Mitchell Jr. each with a bucket for the U.
Former Cretin-Derham Hall standout Tre Holloman is making his impact felt. He hit a 3-pointer and just got a steal that led to a transition dunk for Malik Hall. Spartans up 14-10 with 12:26 remaining in the first half. Ben Johnson calls timeout.
Payne with a bucket and a foul. Hits the free throw. Gophers up 16-14.
Gophers still up 21-20 with 7:46 to play, but the Spartans just got a pair of 3s from Tyson Walker and Jaden Akins to cut down the deficit. The 3 was Walker's first bucket. The Spartans leading scorer is just 1 for 5 from the field and hasn't scored when Braeden Carrington has been defending him. Carrington checking back in. Parker Fox set to shoot two free throws after the timeout.
Payne picks up his second foul with 3:45 to play in the half. Gophers lead 27-26. Garcia has eight points and Fox has seven. Booker leading the Spartans with six.
We're all tied at 32-32 with 1:36 to play in the half. Akins starting to heat up with seven points on 3-for-3 shooting for the Spartans. Izzy calls timeout before the Spartans' upcoming offensive possession.
Walker misses a jumper as time expires in the half, and the Gophers will go into the break with a slight 34-32 edge. Garcia leads the U with 10 points, while Fox has nine. Akins with seven, Booker with six and Walker with five for the Spartans. Payne's free-throw shooting has come a long way. He's 4 for 4 this half and is 5 for 5 overall. He's got a quick six points here in the second as the Gophers lead 40-36.
All tied up at 40-40. Gophers haven't score in the last 2 minutes, 7 seconds. Timeout on the floor with 15:51 left in this game.
Elijah Hawkins got fouled on a layup and after review, officials determined it was a goaltend. He makes the free throw and the Gophers lead 49-44.
Hall with a layup and a foul on Garcia. Ties the game at 49-49 with 11:51 to play. Hall will shoot one free throw after a timeout.
Holloman with a 3 that gives the Spartans a 55-51 lead. Weird play the possession before that where Payne went for a dunk but the ball kind of got caught on the rim as he was hanging on it and it bounced out. Counted as a turnover for the Gophers. There's 9:05 left to play in this one as Johnson calls timeout.
The Spartans have made their last four shots.
Hall with a layup to push the Spartans' lead to eight. They're up 59-51 with 7:24 to play. It's a 7-0 Michigan State run over the last 1 minute, 55 seconds and a 15-2 run over the last 5 minutes, 8 seconds. Gophers haven't scored in last 3 minutes, 11 seconds.
Fox and Garcia both with four fouls apiece. That could be a problem with the Gophers down 65-57 with 4:37 to play.
Fox will be shooting a pair of free throws after a timeout. Spartans lead 67-59 with 3:37 to play. It's do-or-die time now for the Gophers. Need some stops.
Walker has come alive. Big-time jumper followed by a big-time layup. Spartans up 71-61 with 2:28 to play.
A.J. Hoggard with back-to-back layups for the Spartans. Couple fruitless possessions for the Gophers. Spartans are going to win this one.

#5 Wisconsin 87, #12 Maryland 56

The Badgers lead 47-26 at the half. The Terrapins had to play last night and that could be part of the lack of energy early. Jahmir Young with 15 points so far for the Terps, but they're not finding much offense elsewhere. Steven Crowl and John Blackwell with 14 apiece for the Badgers.
Wisconsin starts the second half on a 23-5 run and is in cruise control, leading 70-34 with just over 11 minutes to go.
A complete blowout. The Badgers are up 81-40 with about seven minutes left to play.
And that's a wrap for the second game of the day. Not quite as exciting as the first as the Badgers dominate from start to finish. Blackwell with a game-high-tying 18 points, Crowl finished with 17 and Chuck Hepburn had 10. Young led the Terrapins with 18, DeShawn Harris-Smith had 16 and Julian Reese posted 10. Wisconsin is into the quarterfinals and will play Northwestern on Friday. That game is set to tip off 25 minutes after Purdue-Michigan State, which starts at 11 a.m.
Crowl on playing in home state of Minnesota: "I thought it was a lot of fun, not only for me, but the other Minnesota guys — Tyler, Jack, Nolan — just being able to play in front of our friends and family and get a win. It was a lot of fun. I enjoy playing here. We tend to have a lot of success in Minnesota, and like I said, it was a lot of fun."

#7 Iowa 78, #10 Ohio State 90

Only meeting in the regular season yielded a 79-77 home win for Iowa on Feb. 2.
Buckeyes enter the tourney on a four-game win streak.
Ohio State getting tremendous production from the reserves as the bench players have scored 20 points on 8-of-9 shooting and the Buckeyes lead 40-33 late first half.
Buckeyes maintaining the lead, 63-54, with 12 minutes to go. Scotty Middleton with 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting (three 3s) off the bench. Jamison Battle has also heated up and has 11 points.
Battle scored all 23 of his points in the second half and Ohio State won by a dozen and will face Illinois on Friday.
Ohio State is 6-1 and riding a five game win streak under interim head coach Jake Diebler.

#6 Indiana 61, #11 Penn State 59

Penn State beat Indiana twice during the regular season but the Hoosiers enter the tourney on a four-game win streak.
Ace Baldwin Jr. averaged 22.5 points for Penn State against Indiana.
Penn State only trails by three at 28-25 late in the first half despite shooting 20% (6 of 30). They’re only not getting crushed because they are 10-11 on free throws and Indiana has yet to attempt a free throw.
This one is tight. Indiana up 43-42 with 12:23 to play.
Hoosiers lead 54-51 with 5:12 to go. Penn State still in it despite shooting 28.8% overall.
Indian wins it on Anthony Leal’s layup with seven seconds to play. Penn State’s Puff Johnson missed a 3 that would’ve give the Nittany Lions the lead and that was all she wrote.
Kel’el Ware led Indiana with 18 points and 14 rebounds.

The Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament bracket.
Big Ten

The top-four seeds — Purdue, Illinois, Nebraska and Northwestern — have the double bye and await the winners of the second round for Friday's quarterfinals.

All games on Thursday and Friday will be televised on Big Ten Network. CBS will televise the semifinals and championship game on Saturday and Sunday.