The Michigan State Spartans dropped the Ohio State Buckeyes from the Big Ten Tournament with a 76-67 win at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. The game was offensively led by Denzel Valentine and Travis Trice and was defensively led by Branden Dawson. 

Valentine had 23 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, and three steals for the Spartans. Trice had 18 points in the contest, and 15 of them came in the second half. He really stepped up his play after a rough start. 

Dawson finished with 14 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, and three blocked shots. He rejected Shannon Scott's layup late in the game and threw down a dunk on the other end to put his team up by 10 to stop an Ohio State rally.

This will be the fifth straight year that the Spartans advance to the Big Ten semifinals. They won it last year and are looking to make it their third in four seasons. If they can pull it off, it would be an impressive feat for such a young team.

"Each of one of our three amigos here that need to play well had stretches where they were unbelievable," Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo said to ESPN after the game, "and that's why you win games."

"We have a young team and you know as far as myself, Travis and Denzel, we just have to lead these guys," Dawson said. "So for us to come out and get a huge win against a great team, a physical team, it was great for us."

D'Angelo Russell led the Buckeyes with 19 points, and Scott chipped in 13 in a losing effort. He also had nine assists. He was coming off a career-best game, scoring 21 points on Thursday against Minnesota. 

"There's times where you don't make shots really," Scott said. "That just happened to us. We had to get in better position to make shots. We rushed a lot of shots, as well."

Scott was exactly correct. His team shot 40 percent from the field and 37 percent from downtown. They did impress, making 70 percent of their free-throw attempts. 

While Scott blames the poor shooting effort, Ohio State head coach Thad Matta believes a different aspect of the game allowed them to lose. Matta was obviously upset during multiple points of the game because of the officiating. 

"Honestly, I'd probably better be careful because I'm not very happy right now with what I saw," he said. "I hadn't seen anything like that. It is what it is. You know it's going to be a physical basketball game, but yeah, I was just a little bit upset on one end to the other end and that sort of thing."

Ohio State (23-10, 11-7 Big Ten) will sit tight and wait for Selection Sunday. They have a 99 percent shot at making it. As a matter of fact, many would be shocked to see them miss the NCAA Tournament. They should be headed to their seventh straight NCAA March Madness. 

Michigan State (22-10, 12-6 Big Ten) will play the Maryland Terrapins on Saturday in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals. That game will tip-off at 3:25 PM EST.