DES MOINES, Iowa _ For the second time in four NCAA Tournaments, Michigan State found itself in a dogfight as a No. 2 seed.
This time, it was East Region 15-seeded Bradley making critical plays and draining momentum-swinging 3-pointers to push to the brink of a titanic upset.
But like Tom Izzo's team did all season, the Spartans summoned a scoring stretch through their fatigue and found a way to win.
With Cassius Winston making sure the Braves did not become the next Middle Tennessee State.
Winston scored four of his game-high 26 points in a 9-0 run late in the second half, and No. 5 MSU hung on thanks to a scorching free-throw shooting performance for a 76-65 victory over Bradley on Thursday.
The Spartans (29-6) advance to Saturday's second round and will face a familiar foe in No. 10-seed Minnesota, which upset No. 7-seed Louisville, 86-76, in the early game at Wells Fargo Arena. MSU beat the Gophers (22-13) in their only meeting, 79-55, on Feb. 9 in East Lansing. It will be the first time the two Big Ten foes have ever met in an NCAA Tournament.
It was clear the Spartans felt the quick turnaround from their three-wins-in-three-days Big Ten tournament championship, including the title game over Michigan on Sunday.
Shots were falling short. Switches on defense were not crisp.
But Winston hit a pair of free throws with 6:24 left to spark the key run and give MSU the lead for good, then hit a floater with 4:07 left. Senior Matt McQuaid drained a 3-pointer with 3:31 to play, and Aaron Henry hit a hook shot with 2:41 to play.
The Spartans held Bradley scoreless for a 4:39 stretch late in the half.
Xavier Tillman had 14 points and 11 rebounds. McQuaid added 10 points, while fellow senior Kenny Goins went 1 of 10 from the field, missing all seven of his 3-pointers, to finish with three points and nine rebounds.
MSU went just 5 of 19 from 3-point range in the game but shot 50 percent from the field in the second half.
Elijah Childs scored 19 points and Darrell Brown had 14 for Bradley, which shot just 39.3 percent and went 3 of 12 from 3-point range in the second half after a sizzling start that kept them in the game.
MSU looked like a tired team at the outset, and Bradley _ which had a week off after a surprising run to the Missouri Valley Conference tournament title _ took advantage with its own hot shooting.
The Braves jumped out to a 10-4 lead quickly, getting a pair of 3-pointers in the opening stretch.
Winston helped direct a 9-0 run with a floater and a 3-pointer from the top of the key to pull the Spartans back in front. The two teams traded the lead 11 times and were tied six times as Bradley would answer any time MSU appeared to be starting a run.
The loss of Kyle Ahrens (ankle) and Joshua Langford (foot) proved problematic as Aaron Henry and Gabe Brown each picked up two fouls. Redshirt junior walk-on Conner George, who played 21 minutes all season, got called upon to play the final 5:12 after freshman Brown's second infraction.
The Braves' deep shot proved potent in answering each Spartan lead, with late-half 3-pointers from Luuk van Bree and Nate Kennell putting MSU behind 35-34 at halftime.
Bradley went 6 of 9 from behind the arc and shot 45.8 percent from the field overall, a performance reminiscent of Middle Tennessee State's upset of the Spartans in the 2016 NCAAs, a first-round exit in 2016 that ranks as one of the biggest upsets in tournament history.
MSU made just 2 of 10 3-point attempts and went 11 of 30 (36.7 percent), also getting outrebounded 19-13 in the first 20 minutes. Winston scored 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting.
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