SPARTY PARTY
Michigan St. upsets Oklahoma to join Elite 8
MICHIGAN STATE coach Tom Izzo is Mr. March.
Izzo will attempt to coach his Big Ten Spartans to a seventh NCAA Final Four on Sunday when he faces Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino of Louisville in a battle of two of the sport's elite coaches. This is Izzo’s ninth trip to the Elite Eight and the second straight year his team has advanced this far.
It appears he may have found the player who can take him there as well in senior point guard Travis Trice, who has been on fire throughout this tournament.
Trice, who scored 23 points in last Sunday’s Round-of-32 victory, scored 24 points Friday night as the Spartans rallied from a four-point halftime deficit to defeat third-seeded Oklahoma, 62-58, at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse.
Trice shot 7-for-14 and made all six of his free throws. His heroics came on the same night his father coached Wayne High in Michigan to the state championship game.
Trice’s emergence came as the seventhseeded Spartans, who did not come to life until the Big Ten tournament, continued to amaze their fan base with their gritty performance, winning with defense that limited high-scoring Oklahoma to just 36% from the field. “We got down early, but we stuck together,” Trice said. “That’s what Spartans do.”
The Sooners actually jumped out to a 31-21 lead in a first half that Izzo characterized as “embarrassing” before the Spartans cut the deficit to four. But Trice and Dentzel Valentine combined for 27 points in the second half when the Spartans limited OU, which got 21 points out of Bahamian guard Buddy Hield, the Big 12 Player of the Year, to just 30% shooting and never let the Sooners get the game to the pace they wanted, outscoring the them 35-27 in the final 20 minutes.
The game was still up in the air in the final moments after Oklahoma center TaShawn Thomas scored on a layup with 15 seconds left to cut Michigan State’s lead to 60-58, but star Spartans forward Brandon Dawson, who scored only six points, put the game away with a pair of clutch free throws with 13.6 seconds left. Valentine finished with 18 points, 13 in the second half. Dawson had 11 rebounds.