Sunday, April 01, 2001
Arizona 80, Michigan State 61
Second-half run sends Wildcats to final
By Michael Perry
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MINNEAPOLIS — A snapshot of the two coaches in the final minutes Saturday night said it all. There was Michigan State's Tom Izzo, head in his hands, seated on one end of the sideline. On the other, Arizona's Lute Olson, calmly standing in front of his bench, arms crossed, a drink in his hand.
What was supposed to be a great NCAA Tournament semifinal turned into a blowout.
In the first six minutes of the second half, Arizona ended any hopes Michigan State had of being the first repeat men's basketball champion in nine years.
The impressive Wildcats built a 20-point lead and went on to defeat the stunned Spartans 80-61 at the Metrodome for their 11th consecutive victory.
Arizona (28-7), the No.2 seed from the Midwest Region, will play for its second national championship in five years, Monday night against Duke, which beat Maryland 95-84 Saturday. It is the second trip to the title game for Arizona, which won in 1997 over Kentucky.
Leading by just two points at halftime, the Wildcats started the second half with 14 consecutive points to start a 21-3 run. When Richard Jefferson grabbed an offensive rebound, dribbled back to the 3-point line and fired a basket, it put Arizona ahead 53-33 with 14:12 remaining.
“Everybody was out there having fun,” Arizona forward Michael Wright said. “I nev er imagined. I looked up and we were up by 20, and I was like, "Wow!' Our defense really got them tired.”
“They came to play today, and I don't think we did,” MSU senior Charlie Bell said.
MSU turned over the ball six times in the first five minutes of the half.
The Spartans battled back with a 10-0 run and eventually pulled to 57-48 with 9:35 to go, but they would get no closer. MSU's worst half of the season came at the worst possible time.
“They were quick and made a lot of right decisions, and we made a lot of wrong decisions,” Spartans senior Andre Hutson said.
Said Izzo: “You're talking to a guy who's totally confused on what happened to us as far as the turnovers we had, how we had them, and what we did. It was just one of those games, and it snowballed. The better team won.”
After MSU cut Arizona's lead to 62-52, the Wildcats put away the game with an 8-0 run that had players on the bench high-fiving with six minutes still remaining.
“We had that feeling,” Arizona center Loren Woods said. “We knew we were on our way.”
It was a dominating performance in the final 20 minutes. MSU had lost four games previously by a total of only 23 points.
But the Wildcats shot 50 percent from the field, had all five starters score in double figures and forced 15 turnovers.
The Spartans won the rebounding battle 40-33 but had just 12 second-chance points to the Wildcats' 11.
“People talked so much about their rebounding,” Jef ferson said. “We're not a bad rebounding team ourselves.”
Said Woods: “We had five guys going after the ball every time it went up.”
The game was played much more to Arizona's style: more up and down the floor, less physical.
What also hurt: MSU's top three scorers took too long to get into the game, if at all.
Sophomore Jason Richardson (15.0 ppg) finished with six points on 2-of-11 shooting.
Bell (13.8) scored three points and was 1-of-10 from the field. He did not score until he made a free throw on a technical foul 4:25 into the second half (Jefferson was called for hanging onto the rim after a dunk). Bell's first field goal came 28:11 into the game.
Hutson (13.6) finished with 20 points, but 16 came after Arizona's lead reached 20 points.
The three together average 42.4 points a game this season but totaled 29 Saturday.
Michigan State, the top seed in the South that has been to three consecutive Final Fours, finishes 28-5. It was the Spartans' first NCAA Tournament loss to a lower-seeded team under Izzo.
“We're a second-half team,” said Arizona guard Jason Gardner, who scored a team-high 21 points. “We've been like that all season. We came out and got in the passing lanes and got some steals and dunks, and off we went.”
NCAA Tournament coverage at Cincinnati.com
ARIZONA (80)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Wright 23 6-10 1-1 1-3 0 2 13
Jefferson 34 6-13 2-4 3-8 2 1 17
Woods 37 5-13 1-1 0-8 2 2 11
Arenas 27 4-7 3-4 1-2 7 2 12
Gardner 38 6-11 6-6 0-1 1 1 21
Edgerson 17 3-4 0-0 3-6 1 1 6
Walton 16 0-1 0-0 0-1 2 0 0
Wessel 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Frazier 4 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Hanour 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 30-60 13-16 8-29 15 11 80
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.500, FT-.813. 3-Point Goals:
7-14, .500 (Jefferson 3-5, Arenas 1-2, Gardner
3-7). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 7 (Woods
3, Jefferson 2, Wright, Gardner). Turnovers: 8
(Jefferson 2, Walton 2, Arenas, Gardner, Woods,
Wright). Steals: 12 (Arenas 6, Gardner 3,
Jefferson 2, Wessel).
MICHIGAN ST (61)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Thomas 20 4-6 0-0 4-5 2 1 8
Anagonye 8 0-1 0-0 1-2 0 4 0
Hutson 37 9-14 2-2 2-5 0 2 20
Bell 36 1-10 1-1 1-10 3 1 3
Richardson 28 2-11 1-2 1-7 2 2 6
Taylor 20 3-9 1-2 0-1 2 3 8
Ballinger 9 1-1 0-1 1-2 0 0 2
Randolph 24 5-8 2-4 4-5 0 3 12
Chappell 12 0-0 2-2 0-0 2 1 2
Smith 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Wolfe 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Andreas 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Ishbia 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 25-61 9-14 14-37 11 18 61
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.410, FT-.643. 3-Point Goals:
2-14, .143 (Bell 0-6, Richardson 1-4, Taylor
1-4). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 3 (Hutson
2, Ballinger). Turnovers: 15 (Bell 5, Thomas 3,
Hutson 2, Richardson 2, Taylor 2, Randolph).
Steals: 2 (Taylor, Thomas).
__________________________________
Arizona 32 48 - 80
Michigan St 30 31 - 61
__________________________________
Technical fouls: Arizona 1 (Jefferson). A:
45,406. Officials: Tim Higgins, Tony Greene,
Robert Donato.
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Arizona 80, Michigan State 61