PARADISE ISLAND, the Bahamas– Michigan State was nowhere to be found when the pre-season AP poll came out.
The Spartans, who traditionally dominated the Big Ten in the first decade of this century, went through an uncharacteristic 13-11 season last year that ended prematurely with a first Four overtime loss to UCLA in the NCAA tournament and struggled without a legitimate point guard to replace
All American Cassius Winston and no real leader.
But Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo is making up for lost time.
The Spartans are making winning plays again against high level competition.
They beat Loyola of Chicago, 63-61, in the first round of the Battle for Atlantis when 7-0 senior center Marcus Bingham Jr. scored on a flying dunk off a pass from just before the buzzer on regulation. Then yesterday, they rallied from a five point deficit in the last 1:41 to beat 22nd ranked Connecticut, 64-60., to advance to the championship game against unbeaten defending national champion Baylor.
“We beat a hell of a team,” Izzo said. “Every season has its defining moments. We had one in the final 30 seconds. We are finding ways to win games. We didn’t do that last season.”
The Spartans (5-1) scored the last seven points of the game, pulling off another dramatic victory behind 16 points from Gabe Brown– 11 in the first half– and a career high 15 points in ten minutes from backup center Julius Marble. Marble scored eight of his points in the last three minutes. His two free throws with 141 to play cut UConn’s lead to three and set off a 9-0 run to finish the game. After his free throws, Marble scored in transition to bring the Spartans within one.
“Every game our goal is to win the game,” said Marble, who played just 10 minutes. “So even if I’m playing 10 minutes or 20, I’ve got to stay focused on doing the right things defensively, offensively and being engaged even thought I’m not playing that much. So just making sure I’m locked in and doing the right thing is key.”
The Spartans took a 61-60 lead when sophomore point guard AJ Hoggard made a pair of free throws with 30 seconds. Then the Spartans’ defense locked up the rest of the way. Malik Hall, who scored 24 points and did miss a shot against Loyola, swiped a pass, got fouled and made two free throws to extend the lead to three. The Spartans then forced UConn into a deep three pointer by guard Jalen Gaffney that fell short and Tyson Walker made one of two free throws with 2.5 seconds left to put the game away.
“it’s something coach has harped on us from the very beginning’ just make winning plays” Hall said. “It’s something he’s been talking about since yesterday and the day before.”
Michigan State is getting better all the time, getting 31 points from the bench, decent point guard from Tyson Walker and Hoggard, who combined for just three turnovers: and cutting their team turnovers down to 12 against an aggressive UConn defense.
UConn made no excuses, but it was obvious they were gassed in the first half from the draining of a grueling 115-109 double overtime victory against Auburn in the first round less than 24 hours earlier. The exhaustion robbed them of starting forward Isiah Whaley who fainted from exhaustion after playing 43 minutes against Auburn and took away the Huskies’ legs. They shot just 2 for 16 from the three after making 15 of 26 against Auburn when the Spartans decided to focus on stopping their perimeter game and forward Tyler Polly, who had 24 points against Auburn, did not score. To UConn’s credit, they fought their way back from a 32-18 deficit just before halftime and took a 60-55 lead. But Michigan State’s tenacious defense limited the Huskies to 1 of 9 shooting in the final three minutes
Sophomore center Adama Sonogo, who scored a career high 30 points against Auburn and is emerging as the best big man in the Big East, had 18 and 10 rebounds against the Huskies while Tyrese Martin added 16 points and 12 rebounds despite being questionable because of a sprained left wrist suffered in the Auburn game.
“We knew what it was before we came into the game,” Martin said. “We knew we had to take care of our bodies. Every team has to play three games in three days, so we can’t sit here and use that as an excuse Yes, it was a slow start but we ended up rallying But we just weren’t tough enough at the end.”
