After starting the conference season 0-2, No. 11 Michigan State has reeled off two in a row, including a thrilling win in Columbus, Ohio last Sunday.

The Spartans (14-4, 2-2 Big Ten) needed two overtimes to defeat No. 19 Ohio State (12-2, 2-2), eventually coming away with a 62-59 win.

Michigan State was held scoreless over the final 7:20 of regulation, which ended in a 46-all tie. In the first overtime, each team only managed to score four points.

The Spartans clung to a three-point lead in the final moments of the second overtime and hung on for the victory.

“I thought our guys came out and played as hard as they possibly could,” Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. “It was a tremendous college basketball game.

“We had some major miscues defensively, and offensively we got the shots we wanted, but they just didn’t go down for us like they did the first 13 games of the season.”

BETTER THAN THE RECORD

At a quick glance, Michigan’s record (11-3, 1-2) and 8th place position in the Big Ten do not appear to be very impressive.

Those numbers, however, are slightly misleading.

Michigan’s two conference losses both came at Assembly Hall. Its first loss was a 70-63 defeat at No. 13 Indiana (11-3, 3-1), and its second was last Saturday, 79-74, at No. 7 Illinois (16-2, 2-2).

The Wolverines had a chance to tie the Fighting Illini with under a minute remaining, but star guard Daniel Horton missed a shot and Illinois prevailed.

“That was a tough loss for our team,” Michigan coach Tommy Amaker said. “I thought our kids played with great energy and effort in a very tough environment against a very good basketball team.”

Amaker said only a few plays in each game are the difference between his team being 1-2 and 3-0 in the conference.

“We certainly played well enough to win those games in stretches, but not for the complete game,” Amaker said. “We’re not overly pleased with being 1-2 in the conference, but we knew coming into this that we had a tough stretch early on in the conference.”

STILL WINLESS

Two weeks into the Big Ten season, every team has at least one conference victory – except Minnesota.

At 0-3 in the Big Ten, Minnesota sits alone in the conference cellar, and looking at its next five games, things might not get much better for the Golden Gophers.

Minnesota will face No. 23 Iowa (13-4, 2-1) tonight on the road before returning home to take on Michigan on Saturday.

Minnesota will then visit Illinois, host Indiana and hit the road again to play Ohio State.

Minnesota started its league season with a 57-49 loss to Northwestern. In its next game, Minnesota nearly beat No. 15 Wisconsin (14-2, 4-0), but ultimately lost 64-62. The most recent loss was a 72-55 defeat at Purdue.

Minnesota has struggled offensively, shooting just 35.1 percent from the field in those three games.

“We need to reevaluate things right now,” Minnesota coach Dan Monson said. “When you’re 0-3 and in 11th place in the Big Ten, you need to look at things a little bit differently and try to fix things.”

Numerous injuries have not helped the Gophers. Leading scorers Vincent Grier and Maurice Hargrow, averaging 16.9 and 15.1 points per game, have both missed games due to injury, and only three players have seen action in all 14 games.

“We’re still doing two practices a day just to try to find ourselves, and normally that’s not something you are still trying to do in January,” Monson said. “We are just now getting our team all together and trying to get everyone all on the same page.”

Reach Michael Schlossberg at [email protected].