EAST LANSING – The Michigan State men’s basketball team was back in action Thursday night at the Breslin Center for a matchup against Minnesota. In what was a back-and-forth battle for most of the game, the Spartans pulled away late to win 76-66.

“We won a game, we didn’t progress,” said MSU head coach Tom Izzo. “You got to be progressing every game, you got to be getting better every game.”

With under two minutes to play, the Spartans led 66-64. For a team that has struggled to close out close games this season, a 10-2 run helped MSU secure a much-needed Big Ten win.

Graduate guard Tyson Walker led the way for MSU, scoring eight points during the run and finishing with a team-high 21 points on 7 of 13 shooting after struggling earlier in the game.

“I just didn’t get any shots up,” said Walker. [Maryland] did a good job of not letting me get any easy looks. They did a really good job on defense, I just had to find a way to be more aggressive.”

Graduate forward Malik Hall scored his 1,000th point in his Spartan career midway through the second half and finished the game with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

“We are getting more consistency out of Hall,” said Izzo. “He’s had great practices, he was dialed in coming in. He  was really good in the huddles.”

The Spartans shined in the paint, recording 44 points. MSU forced the Gophers into 19 turnovers while only committing five of their own. The Spartans took advantage of the Gophers’ turnover struggles, scoring 21 points off of them.

With the win, the Spartans improve to 11-7 on the season and 3-4 in Big Ten play. MSU will next travel to College Park, Md. to face off against Maryland. Tipoff is set for noon on Sunday.