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Return to Fourfront Another late surge sends Spartans over Iowa State
Posted: Sunday March 26, 2000 02:28 AM
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- The Michigan State Spartans can slam bodies with the best of them. Add patience to their game and they are almost unbeatable. The top-seeded Spartans used another late run to beat Iowa State 75-64 in the Midwest Regional final Saturday night, advancing to the Final Four for the second straight year. "Coach always says tough players win," said Morris Peterson, who scored all but five of his 18 points in the second half. "And I thought down the stretch, we showed how tough we were." A.J. Granger also scored 18 points for the Spartans (30-7), the last No. 1 seed left in the tournament. This will be the eighth time only one No. 1 has reached the Final Four, and seven of those have been since 1989 -- with four since 1994. Michigan State, which scored the final 17 points in its third-round victory over Syracuse, trailed Iowa State by seven points with 5:49 left in the second half. The Spartans outscored the Cyclones 23-5 the rest of the way. "Both teams in those situations are used to winning with five minutes to go," said Iowa State coach Larry Eustachy, who was ejected with 9.9 seconds remaining. "They played a better quality late in the game, and they're going to the Final Four. You have to give them all the credit."
Jamaal Tinsley scored 18 points, Michael Nurse had 17 and All-American Marcus Fizer added 15 for the second-seeded Cyclones (32-5), who were bidding for their first Final Four appearance since 1944. "We made a lot of good things happen throughout the game," Fizer said. "We also made a lot of mistakes. That team right there is playing to be national champs." The Spartans, who have won three straight Big Ten championships, will face conference rival Wisconsin in the national semifinals next Saturday in Indianapolis. Wisconsin, three-time losers to Michigan State this season, beat Purdue 64-60 in the West final in Albuquerque, N.M. Iowa State took a 59-52 lead with 5:49 left on Kantrail Horton's two free throws. But successive 3-pointers by Granger and Peterson, plus two free throws by Charlie Bell, narrowed the gap to 61-60 with 4:01 left. Bell's jumper from the right side put the Spartans ahead 62-61 with 2:54 left -- their first lead since the 14:19 mark of the half. Then came perhaps the biggest play of the game. Mateen Cleaves, who had only one assist to that point, threw up an alley-oop pass that Peterson slammed down with 2:03 left, giving the Spartans a 64-61 lead and sending the partisan crowd at The Palace -- about 80 minutes from East Lansing -- into a frenzy. "We wanted to get a for-sure basket, and I think that's as for sure as you can get," Granger said. "It was a big momentum-changer. We wanted to get the crowd on its feet, and that did the job."
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said it was Peterson who called the play in the huddle a few moments earlier. "That play usually comes off when we screen and re-screen," Izzo explained. "Morris said, 'What do you think about screen and re-screen?' and I said it sounded great." Now the 21,214 fans, over three-fourths of them wearing green and white, could sense the dream had been revived. "That really turned the whole thing around," Cyclones guard Kantrail Horton said. "That was great execution." Peterson hit four free throws and Cleaves made one down the stretch, while the Cyclones - hurrying their shots now - began to fire wildly until Nurse sank a 3-pointer with 44.2 remaining. Granger finished it off with four straight free throws, thanks in part to a double technical foul against Eustachy who left a dejected bench. As he walked toward the tunnel, reserve forward Paul Shirley, who fouled out with 3:43 remaining, was still sobbing. "It was still a great season," Horton said. "People picked us to finish last in our conference, but we accomplished a lot." The Spartans are seeking their first NCAA championship since 1979 when Magic Johnson's team beat Larry Bird's Indiana State team. The Cyclones trailed by three at halftime. But Fizer, a 6-foot-8, 265-pound junior held to six points in the first half, started connecting after intermission. Fizer hit three straight shots - a layup, a floating 3-pointer, and a jumper from the left side - during a 12-0 run that put Iowa State ahead 48-40 with 11:45 left. Michigan State's best weapon at that point was Andre Hutson. Izzo had been pleading with the pass-first player to be more selfish, and Hutson finally took him up on it. Hutson, who finished with 17 points, scored nine straight, some over Fizer, as the Spartans narrowed the gap to 48-47 with 7:52 remaining. "I think he took playing Fizer as a challenge," Izzo said. But a jumper by Tinsley, who learned the game on the New York City playgrounds, and a 3-pointer by Nurse sparked another Iowa State spurt that put the Cyclones up 59-52 with 5:49 left. But the Spartans have been behind before. They trailed Syracuse by 14 in the second half of their semifinal game with the Orangemen on Thursday night and still won by 17 points. Successive 3-pointers by Granger and Peterson let the Cyclones know Michigan State wasn't going to wilt. "We've got a lot of leadership," said Cleaves, the Spartans' leader who returned for his senior year just for another shot at the national championship. "It's something like a refuse to lose attitude. When we get down, we pull together." Bell's jumper put the Spartans ahead for good, 62-61, with 2:54 left. The victory was Michigan State's ninth straight. Iowa State had
won 10 in a row.
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