Gabe Brown and Malik Hall held a significant lead in the second half and Tom Izzo became the all-time Big Ten leader in a career win as Michigan State beat Maryland 77-67 on Sunday.
Michigan State (20-11, 11-9 Big Ten), seeded seventh, will take on 10th seed Maryland (15-16, 7-13) once again on Thursday night in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals.
For Maryland, Eric Ayala had 19 points, Fats Russell had 16 and Donta Scott had 13 points.
"We have confidence in our abilities and we're going to stick to our game plan for the full 40 minutes," Russell said. "We fought in the second half, we just have to put the whole 40 together."
With his 663rd win at Michigan State, Izzo surpassed Indiana's Bob Knight for the most wins in a Big Ten school. Knight Conference continues to lead in the win, 353 with Izzo's 322 in second.
Maryland led the Spartans 32–15 in the first 12 1/2 minutes of the second half, reducing their 20-point halftime deficit to 61–58. Both teams had 10–0 runs in that period and Maryland put on 19–2 runs which included two 3-pointers by Ayala and another from Donta Scott.
Brown, a senior co-captain, then stepped up with an individual 7–0 run, Hall, a junior, added seven points of his own, and Michigan State led 75–62 with two minutes remaining.
"We've seen some ups and downs, but the march here and the march is special," Izzo told the Breslin Center crowd after the game during the team's Senior Day celebrations. "We're good enough to beat a lot of people."
Hall scored 17 points off the bench and Brown finished with 10. Tyson Walker had 13 points and Marcus Bingham Jr added 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Spartans.
Michigan State scored the first 14 points of the game and the opening run went up to 18–1 before Maryland shot. The Terrapins missed their first 14 shots and missed their first 13 3-pointers before Russell was hit in the half with 2:10. Michigan State led 46–26 at halftime. Bingham led the Spartans with 12 points and nine rebounds. That was from a 3-for-three-point distance.
After losing five straight games, including a 65–63 loss to Michigan State, the Terrapins had won four of their last five games, including a 75–60 home victory over No. 23 Ohio State.