EAST LANSING, Mich. _ Xavier Tillman delivered an energized performance _ and a brief scare _ on an otherwise humdrum night for No. 8 Michigan State.
The junior forward set a career high with 16 rebounds and added 19 points to lead the Spartans to a 74-58 victory over Minnesota on Thursday, their eighth straight victory.
Tillman limped out of the game with 5:26 remaining, apparently cramping around his right knee. Trainers examined and worked it on MSU's bench, and he returned to the court a little more than a minute of game time later.
Cassius Winston, mired in a shooting funk most of the game, caught a bit of a rhythm after Tillman returned. The senior point guard scored 16 of his game-high 27 points in the final 10:50 to put away the pesky Gophers. Winston added six assists and now has 808 for his career. He needs nine more to surpass Mateen Cleaves' Big Ten record of 816.
Tillman finished 9-of-14 shooting. He also had five blocks, four assists and three steaks.
First-place MSU (13-3, 5-0 Big Ten) travels to Purdue on Sunday. Tipoff is noon at Mackey Arena.
Daniel Oturu, the Big Ten's second-leading scorer and top rebounder, finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds to lead Minnesota (8-6, 2-3).
The Spartans played without senior swingman Kyle Ahrens, who coach Tom Izzo said on his pregame radio show continues to battle an Achilles strain.
Coming off an emotion-fueled 87-69 win over No. 19 Michigan on Sunday, the Spartans _ outside of Tillman _ looked sluggish from the outset of Thursday's late tipoff.
Tillman elevated his play against Oturu, scoring MSU's first six points and grabbing five rebounds by the first media timeout. But the Gophers, behind their star sophomore big man, never let the Spartans pull away by more than six points and turned it quickly into a back-and-forth first half.
Tillman was 6 for 8 with 13 points and 12 rebounds by halftime, but Oturu had 14 points on 7-of-11 shooting and six rebounds. The rest of their teammates struggled _ the other Spartans were a combined 7 for 22, and the other Gophers were 7 for 24.
After Minnesota took a four-point lead on Oturu's dunk in transition, the Spartans countered thanks to some energy off the bench from Julius Marble. The freshman forward had a steal and dunk on the break as MSU closed the half on a 12-4 run to carry a 36-32 lead into half.
Winston drilled a deep 3-pointer as part of that to finish with nine points but made just 2 of 8 shots and had just one assist as the Gophers chased him defensively and cut off his driving and passing lanes.
MSU opened the second half on a 16-9 run to build its lead to double digits. That included a little more energy from the freshmen, with Rocket Watts driving for a floating layup and Malik Hall getting a steal on Minnesota's ensuing possession and sending a long outlet pass to Gabe Brown for a breakaway layup to put MSU ahead, 52-41. And Marble applied physical defense to Oturu and in the paint.
