Michigan State's goalie Trey Augustine, left, fights off Minnesota's Aaron Huglen, right, during the first period on Friday, Jan. 26, 2024, at Munn Arena in East Lansing. / Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

Michigan State lost its top spot in the USCHO poll after an overtime loss to Michigan last week. The Spartans fell just one spot and still earned 13 first-place votes. They'll have quite the matchup this week as Minnesota visits for a two-game set.

Freshman Syla Swords scored 23 points, eight in the fourth quarter, and No. 24 Michigan edged No. 23 Minnesota 70-65.

The Minnesota Golden Gophers were not a full strength when the only took one of a possible six points against Michigan State in their final series of 2024. They hope to redeem themselves this weekend when they head into East Lansing at full strength in a top-three ranked showdown between the two teams atop the Big Ten standings.

The Michigan Wolverines (13-5) will try to continue a three-game winning streak when they visit the Minnesota Golden Gophers (17-2) at 8:00 PM ET on Wednesday, January 22, 2025 at Williams Arena.

With each passing game, Michigan’s freshmen look less and less like rookies. On Thursday night in Minneapolis, they carried the Wolverines to their first top-25 win of the season. Michigan beat No. 23 Minnesota 70-65, handing the Golden Gophers their first loss at Williams Arena this season in 12 tries.

This affiliate content is not influenced by our advertising relationships, but AP and Data Skrive might earn commissions from our partners’ links in this content.

Oregon and Minnesota meet! Our College Basketball odds series has our Oregon-Minnesota prediction, odds, and pick.

SportsLine's model just revealed its college basketball picks for the Minnesota Golden Gophers vs. Michigan Wolverines on Thursday night

Michigan State? The crisp 2024 banners hanging at Munn Ice Arena are the only two titles won since joining the Big Ten. It has earned more accolades as a program — in total, eight regular-season titles and 14 conference tournament titles, and national championships in 1966, 1986 and 2007.

But the Gophers (17-3 overall, 5-3 Big Ten) struggled to finish against Michigan’s physical defense, making only nine of 33 second-half shots and just four of 15 in the fourth q

Combining for 54 points against Minnesota, the Michigan women's basketball team's Olson, Swords and Holloway paved the way for victory.