Strong bench play leads Spartans to victory

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Detroit — Sophomore guards Chris Allen and Durrell Summers were scoreless in the first half.

So was senior center Goran Suton.

But the MSU men’s basketball team was beating Connecticut on Saturday night in the national semifinals and once again the Spartans proved why no single player is the face of the team.

Freshman guard Korie Lucious scored all 11 of his points in the first half and freshman forward Draymond Green scored all eight of his in the second as the Spartans defeated UConn 82-73 at Ford Field to advance to Monday’s national championship game.

“We always say we’re built for moments like that,” Green said. “If someone’s down we have to come in and pick them up and I think we did a great job of picking them up.”

The scoring off the bench was the difference for MSU, as the Spartans’ bench outscored UConn’s 33-7. Aside from the 21 points from the freshmen duo of Lucious and Green, Summers also awoke in the second half to score 10 points.

The bench was especially important Saturday because of the foul trouble the Spartans faced. Junior forward Raymar Morgan, senior guard Travis Walton and senior center Idong Ibok all had three fouls. Suton had four fouls, while Green fouled out.

Dunk heard ‘round the world
If you didn’t see Summers’ dunk over UConn forward Stanley Robinson, you’ll more than likely see it as soon as you turn on a TV.

With about six minute remaining, Summers received a pass long pass from Morgan and went up to the rim with Robinson in front of him. Summers slammed the ball — and Robinson’s wrist — through the hoop to put the Spartans up 10.

“He’s a good athlete as well, but if you can catch another athlete on his heels (you can have success),” Summers said. “I just went up as strong as I could and tried to dunk it as hard as I could and I just tried to over-power it into the rim.”

Walton called the dunk “nasty,” while Green said no matter how spectacular the dunk was, it’s something the players and coaches expect out of the 6-foot-5 guard.

“Coaches tell Durrell everyday he has to live above the rim with his athleticism,” Green said. “He lived above the rim there.”

Inside the skirmish
With about two minutes remaining in the first half, UConn’s Jeff Adrien got a rebound, power-dribbled and went back up for a layup but was fouled by Walton. Walton fell to the ground and both teams converged, with a lot of talking and grabbing going on.

Senior forward Marquise Gray, who was right in the middle of it all, said he had no idea how the scrum originally started, but he went in the commotion to make sure nothing happened to Walton.

“We just wanted to make sure nothing got out of hand and make sure Trav was all right,” Gray said. “I just wanted to make sure that Trav was OK and that he didn’t feel like he was alone in there. We ride together, we do everything together and that’s part of what being a team and a family is.”

Home court advantage
With East Lansing only 92 miles away, Saturday night seemed like a home game for the Spartans. A large majority of the 72,456 fans at Ford Field were wearing Green and White and pulling for MSU.

Saturday’s attendance was a Final Four record and the second-largest ever for a college basketball game. The largest crowd was the 78,129 fans who watched MSU play Kentucky on Dec. 13, 2003 at Ford Field.

Izzo had one final message for the fans: “Thanks Michigan State. Thanks Detroit. We’ll see you Monday night!”

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