Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans didn’t take Minnesota lightly.

Coming into Tuesday’s game, the Golden Gophers had won three straight games, two of which were against NCAA tournament-quality teams (Michigan and Oregon).

This wasn’t the same Minnesota team that the Spartans played in early December. The Gophers were playing their best basketball of the season. Izzo and the Spartans knew that and they prepared for this game accordingly.

“This is the first time this team has been in a position where I know that they did not take us lightly,” Minnesota coach Ben Johnson said. “When you beat two ranked teams and you get a win on the road, that staff is going to have their team on 10 to get ready and no one’s going to look past this game. We just haven’t experienced that and you could feel their intensity. You could feel how dialed in they were.”

Izzo said that Minnesota got “championship-prep” ahead of this game.

“This game was concerning for us because we didn’t have a great matchup for (Dawson) Garcia and those guards had really been playing well," Izzo said. "Our guards, I thought - Jeremy (Fears Jr.) - and them, did a pretty good job right off the bat and took them out of it a little bit.”

The prep turned out to be successful.

Michigan State suffocated Minnesota defensively throughout the game en route to a 73-51 victory. It was the Spartans’ 13th straight win to cap off two consecutive undefeated months of basketball.

Michigan State dominated the first half, especially on the defensive end. Minnesota shot 7-for-22 from the field and the Gophers turned the ball over 11 times in the opening 20 minutes. The Spartans had four blocks and six steals in that half to go along with a 21-12 rebounding advantage.

Izzo described the defensive performance as “swarming.”

“In all the years I’ve been here, I thought the first half of basketball was one of the best halves defensively I’ve seen my team play,” Izzo said. “Then, we started taking care of the ball and moving a little better. I still wasn’t pleased with our offense. Even the ball movement, we just don’t look real sharp.”