There was a lot more on the line for the Gophers men’s basketball team Tuesday night than one player having something personal against Michigan State.
Gophers upset Michigan State 59-56; Cam Christie sparks comeback, wins another family feud
Cam Christie scored 19 points against his brother’s former team to push up the Gophers in the Big Ten standings. Minnesota defeated Northwestern, where his mother was a star, last weekend.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
February 7, 2024 at 12:34PM
Still, it was clearly the Cam Christie revenge game.
After not being able to help his team late in an earlier loss to his brother’s former program in East Lansing, the freshman standout led the Gophers with 19 points in the rematch in a 59-56 win Tuesday against the Spartans at Williams Arena.
The Gophers (15-7, 6-5 Big Ten) were carried by their young standout and are tied for fourth place in the conference with Northwestern after their first victory against Michigan State since 2020-21.
One impact of the standings jump: The top four teams in the conference standings at the end of the season get double-byes in the Big Ten tournament.
“It was a ton of fun to be able to play in that game,” said Christie, who shot a season-best 5-for-6 from three-point range. “They’ve been a historically great program. It’s always a tough game playing against them. My brother playing there a few years ago just added to it.”
After facing a nine-point deficit in the second half, the Gophers were flirting with the game getting away from them before Christie’s back-to-back threes quickly made it 45-43.
Christie, younger brother of Los Angeles Lakers and ex-Spartans guard Max Christie, was motivated to face Michigan State again after fouling out with eight minutes left in a 76-66 road loss Jan. 18.
With four minutes remaining, the Barn erupted when the 6-6 former four-star recruit from Arlington Heights, Ill., drilled his fifth three of the game to make it 51-50 Minnesota.
“I think when you put in that much work that he does,” Gophers coach Ben Johnson said, “these results don’t surprise you what he does.”
After Dawson Garcia’s three-pointer gave the Gophers a 55-52 lead with just less than a minute left, Michigan State’s A.J. Hoggard hit 2-of-3 free throws after being fouled beyond the arc to make it a one-point game.
Coming up in the clutch again, Christie answered with two free throws of his own after being hit on a defensive rebound to extend the lead to three with 18.5 seconds left.
The maturation of the reigning Big Ten freshman of the week is reminiscent of his brother’s impact for the Spartans before he was drafted into the NBA after his freshman year in 2021-22.
Christie had 14 points combined in back-to-back losses to Michigan State on the road and Wisconsin at home last month, but he responded by averaging 17 points on 17-for-30 shooting in the last three games. All of those games were wins for the Gophers, including vs. Penn State and Northwestern, his mother’s alma mater.
“I’ve seen it in high school,” said Johnson, who recruited Christie out of Rolling Meadows in Illinois. “He isn’t scared to fail. He wants the ball. He wants the shot.”
NBA scouts were in the house (and celebrities like Vikings quarterback and ex-Spartan Kirk Cousins) watching a back-and-forth affair between two teams trying to move up from the middle of the pack in the Big Ten standings.
Parker Fox came up big early with a big block to ignite the home crowd, and his three-point play after a layup plus the foul gave Minnesota a 20-13 lead in the first half.
“I’m an emotional guy and wear my heart on my sleeve,” said Fox, who finished with seven of his eight points in the first half. “I feed off that crowd.”
A lengthy scoring drought zapped some life out of the building when the Spartans (14-9, 6-6) used an 11-2 run to help them lead 32-25 at halftime. It was the 10th time in 11 Big Ten games that the Gophers trailed at the break, but that hasn’t been a major deterrent.
Tyson Walker and Jaden Akins had 20 of their 36 combined points in the first half, but the Spartans were held to 35% shooting in the second half, including 2-for-10 from three.
Besides Christie fouling out in the last meeting, the Gophers were also shorthanded playing without starting point guard Elijah Hawkins at Michigan State.
Hawkins tweaked his ankle in Saturday’s overtime win vs. Northwestern, but he wasn’t going to miss arguably the biggest home game yet this season. The junior hit the final two free throws of the game with 6.5 seconds left to seal it.
After being predicted to finish last again in the conference, the Gophers made a statement Tuesday that they should be taken seriously in the Big Ten moving into the top five in the standings. They’re also on the program’s longest conference winning streak since 2017.
“Credit to these guys because they’ve developed and gotten better,” Johnson said. “Last year, we took our lumps and we played young guys because we had to. You kind of get through the suck, but this is the benefit of it.”
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