SAN ANTONIO – One former champion moves on, barely, while the defending champs go home, sadly.
Sidestepping what would have been a major collapse, Michigan State last night built a 14-point lead in the second half, watched it come crumbling down and then in the final minute leaned on the poised play of a freshman to escape with a shaky but effective 60-58 victory over Maryland in a South Regional semifinal game at the Alamodome.
“Lets face it, we were a little bit lucky,” Spartan coach Tom Izzo said after his team was outscored 15-0 in a wild three-minute stretch.
No. 7-seed Michigan State (22-12), which knocked off the second-seed Florida last week, will play No. 1-seed Texas tomorrow in the regional final for the right to go to New Orleans for the Final Four.
Maryland (21-10), which won its first national championship a year ago, has been dethroned after a determined comeback fell agonizingly short when Steve Blake’s hurried 3-point attempt at the buzzer fell harmlessly off the back of the rim.
Blame Paul Davis for the failed comeback.
The 6-11 freshman, a pain in Maryland’s neck all evening, scored the last four points of the game.
The Spartans, who won the title in 2000, looked to be in complete control, opening up a 54-40 lead, with 6:58 remaining but down and nearly out, the Terps threw on a full-court press, hoping to speed up the bigger, slower Spartans and indeed, the faster pace resulted in six turnovers in less than four minutes.
“For some reason, I don’t know why, we just got careless with the ball,” Spartan forward Alan Anderson said.
When Blake scored on a nifty up-and-under drive with 3:45 left, Maryland had come all the way back and led 55-54. It was a 58-56 Terps lead before Davis rose up and made the plays.
He threw down a resounding dunk past the reach of Maryland’s Tahj Holden to tie the game at 58 with 58.6 seconds to go. After a miss by the Terrapins, Anderson drove and passed to Davis, Michigan’s Mr. Basketball last year as a high school senior. Davis put in a driving bank shot with 4.7 seconds remaining to give Michigan State a four-point lead.
“Paul’s a big-time player,” Anderson said, “and he came up with big-time plays.”
Maryland inbounded to Blake, who rushed the length of the floor and missed at the buzzer.
