Minnesota faces Michigan State following Garcia’s 23-point showing

Michigan State Spartans (6-2) at Minnesota Golden Gophers (6-3)

Minneapolis; Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Minnesota hosts Michigan State after Dawson Garcia scored 23 points in Minnesota’s 79-62 victory over the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats.

The Golden Gophers have gone 6-1 in home games. Minnesota has a 2-2 record in games decided by less than 4 points.

The Spartans play their first true road game after going 6-2 with a 2-2 record in neutral-site games to begin the season. Michigan State ranks second in the Big Ten scoring 41.8 points per game in the paint led by Coen Carr averaging 7.0.

Minnesota is shooting 42.8% from the field this season, 1.1 percentage points higher than the 41.7% Michigan State allows to opponents. Michigan State averages 21.6 more points per game (80.5) than Minnesota allows to opponents (58.9).

The matchup Wednesday is the first meeting of the season between the two teams in conference play.

TOP PERFORMERS: Garcia is scoring 19.1 points per game and averaging 7.0 rebounds for the Golden Gophers.

Jase Richardson averages 1.0 made 3-pointers per game for the Spartans, scoring 10.4 points while shooting 53.8% from beyond the arc.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.