- Michigan State basketball recovered from a slow start to advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
- The second-seeded Spartans will face 10-seed New Mexico on Sunday for a spot in the South region Sweet 16.
CLEVELAND — An all-out war and a battle of attrition.
An assault on the glass. Blood on the floor. The type of game Tom Izzo’s Michigan State basketball teams have been known for playing over three decades.
And 15-seed Bryant dished out just as much physicality as 2-seed Michigan State basketball.
Yet the Bulldogs had no answer for Coen Carr. Or the Spartans’ interior depth that wore out their opponent yet again – this time to survive and advance in the South region of the NCAA tournament.
Carr finished with career highs of 18 points and nine rebounds, and No. 7 MSU displayed its dominance by overpowering Bryant in the second half en route to a 87-62 victory Friday night at Rocket Arena.
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The Spartans (28-6) face No. 10 seed New Mexico at 8:40 p.m. Sunday (TNT) for a trip to next week’s Sweet 16 in Atlanta. The Lobos beat 7-seed Marquette in the evening’s first game at Rocket Arena, 75-66, to advance to the round of 32.
MSU put together a ferocious 54-29 rebounding advantage, including 21-9 on the offensive glass that led to a 31-6 edge in second-chance points. The Spartans drained 10 3-pointers and got 15 points from Jase Richardson, 14 from Tre Holloman (with four assists) and 11 apiece from Jeremy Fears Jr. and Jaden Akins.
Rafael Pinzon scored 21 points for Bryant (23-12), but on 9-for-26 shooting. Earl Timberlake, who took an elbow to the forehead and got bloodied in the first half but returned, scored 14 points with five assists and four rebounds.
High-flying Carr
Bryant gave MSU everything it could handle from the outset, crashing the boards with fearlessness and ferocity, dishing out physicality while absorbing it from the Spartans.
It took the unmatched athletic ability of Carr to give MSU an edge.
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The Bulldogs’ big guards and zone defense pestered the Spartans’ perimeter players. A spin-move layup deep inside the paint from Carr near the midpoint of the first half gave MSU its first lead at 14-12.
The 6-foot-6, 225-pound pogo stick was far from done.
Carr attacked the glass at both ends of the floor, ripping down three of his five first-half rebounds on the offensive side, including dunks off two of them. He ran the court like a gazelle as well, catching a bullet pass in transition from Holloman and finishing with a finger roll. And when it looked like he was about to throw down a trademark dunk, Carr got met with a hard foul from Bryant’s Connor Withers in the paint but finished through the contact and completed the three-point play with 4:06 left before halftime.
The sophomore scored nine straight points, and MSU used a 10-0 run that included a Frankie Fidler layup off a goaltend in transition and a Jase Richardson 3-pointer to build a seven-point lead.
Carr’s second put-back slam came with 30 seconds left before half, but Timberlake’s driving layup just before the final horn cut it to 33-28 at the break.
But perhaps Carr’s best throwdown came just after halftime. Fears missed a 3-pointer from the right corner, but Carr soared in over Timberlake and Kvonn Cramer for a two-handed follow jam that set the tone for the rest of the game.
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Second-half surge
MSU began to assert its depth on the interior and landed deep shots to go with it.
It was an overwhelming show of force in the second half. Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper joined Carr in the board barrage. Akins and Fears started the 3-point party, while Richardson and Holloman kept connecting from deep.
MSU went from inching away to wearing down the Bulldogs and blowing it open. The Spartans had a 28-10 rebounding edge after halftime, including 16-5 on the offensive boards. That led to a 27-6 second-chance scoring edge after halftime.
MSU also went 7-for-18 from 3-point range, with Holloman hitting three and Richardson two as the Spartans outscored the Bulldogs 54-34 in the second half.
Kohler and Cooper each had nine rebounds, while Fears finished with six assists.
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Next up: New Mexico
Going into the second round, MSU is 2-0 all-time against New Mexico, with road wins in Albuquerque on Dec. 28, 1985 and Dec. 18, 1970. Izzo is 9-3 against Lobos coach Richard Pitino from his time coaching Minnesota from 2013-21. That included a 2019 NCAA tournament second-round win over the Gophers en route to Izzo’s most recent Final Four appearance.
Izzo is 57-25 in his 27th consecutive NCAA appearance, but the Spartans have only advanced past the first weekend of the tournament once since that 2019 Final Four berth, a 2023 Sweet 16 overtime loss to Kansas State.
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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