Michigan State Beats No. 1 Seed Louisville to Reach Final Four
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The Spartans gave the Final Four a hometown feel, stopping overall No. 1 seed Louisville 64-52 Sunday to win the Midwest Regional.
Goran Suton had 19 points and 10 rebounds as the second-seeded Spartans (30-6) reached their fifth Final Four in 11 years — the most trips of any team in the nation during that span.
Only 90 miles from their campus in East Lansing, the Spartans will play Connecticut on Saturday at Ford Field in Detroit.
A crowd of 72,000, the largest ever for college basketball's signature event, is expected for each game.
The Cardinals allowed Michigan State to dictate the pace with their deliberate half-court style, and Louisville's vaunted pressure defense produced no fastbreak points.
Instead, Michigan State relied on its physical style and finally broke the Cardinals.
After going 28 minutes without either team taking more than a three-point lead, the Cardinals broke down.
Louisville came back from a 30-27 halftime deficit to take a 34-32 lead with 15:33 to go.
But the Spartans answered with the first big run of the day, outscoring Louisville 9-2 over a two-minute span for a 41-36 lead.
The Spartans were just getting started.
Michigan State took advantage of the Cardinals poor free-throw shooting to go on a 17-7 run that made it 58-43 with 5:50 to go.
That forced Louisville to rush its offense into bad shots, and with Louisville's rebounders out of position, Michigan State dominated.
The Cardinals made only one basket in the last 5:18 and shot just 38.3 percent from the field
Labels: MSU Basketball
posted by The MBD @ 5:48 PM
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