CHICAGO – Michigan State basketball was one-and-done in the Big Ten Tournament.
The next time the eighth-ranked Spartans lose would mean the end of their season.
UCLA, the No. 6 seed, shot the lights out against 3-seed MSU from start to finish and held off the Spartans’ furious comeback attempt in the final five minutes en route to an 88-84 victory at United Center on Friday, March 13.
The Bruins (23-10) advance to play No. 18 Purdue in the tourney semifinals on Saturday evening. The 7-seed Boilermakers knocked off 3-seed Nebraska in Friday night’s quarterfinal, 74-58.
Meanwhile, MSU (25-7) must now wait to find out its NCAA Tournament seeding after falling behind by as many as 15 points and trailing by 14 inside of five minutes to play. The Spartans rallied back to within two points four times in the final minute. But four free throws from Trent Perry in the final 12.1 seconds and a steal by Donovan Dent on an inbound pass allowed UCLA to run out the clock and advance.
Jeremy Fears Jr. scored 14 of his 21 points in the second half, and his 13 assists gave him 294 on the season, breaking the MSU’s single-season mark held by Cassius Winston.
Carson Cooper and Kur Teng each scored 13 points, while Coen Carr had 12 points and eight rebounds for MSU, which shot 45.2% overall and hit 11 of 23 from 3-point range.
But the Bruins torched the nets for 13-for-27 from 3-point range and shot 55.6% overall. Dent had 23 points and 12 assists with six rebounds, one night after becoming the first player to ever record a triple-double in the Big Ten tourney. Perry had 22 points and was 4-for-8 from beyond the arc, while Eric Dailey Jr. had 14 points and 10 rebounds. Skyy Clark added 15 points and three 3-pointers for the Bruins, who defeated 14-seed Rutgers on Thursday night, 72-59.
3 ‘D’ down
The Spartans’ perimeter defense dropoff from a year ago has been pretty stark, and it proved costly against the Bruins. Until they started matching them in the second half.
MSU entered the postseason having given up 33% to Big Ten teams this season, seventh in the league. Meanwhile, the Bruins led the league in 3-point shooting during conference play at 37.7%. And with Dent attacking off the dribble, it allowed UCLA to get drive-and-kick open looks from outside all night.
The Bruins went 7-for-13 from behind the arc and shot a blistering 63% in the first half. Dent had 12 points and was 3-for-3 from 3-point range, while three of his seven assists before halftime came on his teammates’ 3s as UCLA took a 44-33 lead to the locker room.
MSU, which trailed by as much as 13 in the opening period, heated up in the second half as Fears opened the half with a top-of-the-key 3-pointer. Then Kur Teng took a pass from the third-year sophomore point guard for another from deep after UCLA built its biggest lead to that point at 54-39 on a Clark triple.
Teng’s 3-pointer sparked a 10-2 run, with a 3 and a jumper from Fort. The sixth-year senior transfer hit another from behind the arc with 9:48 to play to pull the Spartans back with five at 63-58.
But UCLA barely missed from outside and seemingly had answer after answer for MSU.
The Spartans gave up 10-or-more 3-pointers 14 times during the regular season. UCLA was 8-for-25 in the first meeting at Breslin Center, an 82-59 MSU blowout win. The Spartans made 14 of 27 from deep in that game.
Fears’ homecoming
Fears, a Joliet, Illinois, native, returned to the Chicagoland area and etched his name into MSU’s record books.
Fears broke the record with a lob to Cooper for a layup with 1:54 to play, pulling the Spartans back within 78-73 after another 3-pointer from UCLA’s Clark. He passed the previous single-season record of 291, set by Winston in 2018-19.
As MSU rallied from 11 down after Trent Perry drilled a 3-pointer with 4:56 to play. Fears set up Jordan Scott for a triple with 4:08 left. Then after a deft-handed rebound from Kohler, and a balancing-act save from Scott on the pass, Fears drove into the paint and hit a spinning jumper and got fouled. His three-point play cut it to 75-71, though Clark drained another 3 right after it and just before Fears’ record-setting assist to Cooper.
That’s when the game got crazy.
Teng turned the ball over on a bad post-entry pass, and Dent stole it and made two free throws after getting fouled with 1:08 left. Fears responded with another driving layup with 57.4 ticks remaining. After Dent missed a 1-and-1, then Teng’s pump-fake, step-back 3-pointer kicked high off the rim and fluttered through the net with 43.1 to go. MSU was back within 80-78.
But freshman Scott fouled Perry with 36.9 seconds left when the Spartans could have played for a defensive stop, hearing about it from his teammates and Izzo.
After Fears hit two free throws and set up Cooper for another layup, with a Clark layup sandwiched between with 25 seconds left, Scott fouled Perry on an inbound pass and got hit in the face with the back of the UCLA guard’s head. Perry hit both free throws, then Fears answered with a layup with 6.7 seconds to play to cut it back to 86-84. But Scott again fouled Perry, whose elbow appeared to clip Fears in the head in the process, and Perry hit both free throws with 5.1 ticks left. Scott’s inbound pass was wide of Fears, right to Dent, who ran out the clock.
Next up for MSU
The Spartans return to East Lansing and will await the NCAA Tournament selection show on Sunday (6 p.m., CBS) to find out their seeding and destination for Izzo’s 28th straight appearance. MSU entered the Big Ten Tournament appearing to have an inside track on a 2-seed for the NCAAs, but the loss to the Bruins could put that in peril.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State takes big Dent damage from UCLA in Big Ten Tournament
Reporting by Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
