Highlights of the Michigan State victory over Uconn.
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Michigan State upended the favored UConn Huskies to advance to …
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MSU beats UConn, moves to title game
Spartans throttle favored Huskies
Updated: Sunday, 05 Apr 2009, 12:04 PM EDT
Published : Saturday, 04 Apr 2009, 2:49 PM EDT
DETROIT, Mich. (WOOD) - All the Spartans need is one more win.
With Magic Johnson, the hero of the Spartans championship season 30 years ago, cheering them on from the stands, the current Michigan State squad upended the favored UConn Huskies to advance to Monday's NCAA championship game.
With 72,456 fans looking on from the stands at Ford Field, the Michigan State Spartans (31-6) and UConn Huskies (31-5) displayed their athleticism, speed and defense in the first semifinal game of the Final Four.
A last second shot gave MSU a 38-36 halftime lead, and they pulled away in the second half to earn a 82-73 victory.
The Spartans took an early 7-point lead against the Huskies, but the Huskies stormed back on a 12-4 run and took a 19-16 lead.
The Spartans continued to play an uptempo game and retook the lead, 30-29, with about 2:30 to play in the first half, then stretched it back to a 4-point lead.
A hard foul with 1:55 left led to a brief skirmish between the teams, but the referrees and coaches made sure nothing came of it.
UConn began the second half on a 6-0 run to re-take the lead, and Spartans center Goran Suton picked up his third foul just two minutes into the half.
But Suton followed that with his first basket of the game to tie it at 44, part of a 6-0 run of their own that saw them regain the lead, 46-44.
As the half wore on, MSU's speed and defense, plus a few key 3-pointers, helped them grow their lead to 10 points with 5:40 to play. A big reason was MSU's bench scoring, as they outscored the Huskies 28-5 at this point in the game.
They took a 71-60 lead with just over three minutes to play when Connecticut called a timeout.
UConn began cutting into the lead and trailed by four with 86 seconds left. They cut it to three with a minute to play when the Spartans Durrell Summers scored a basket and a free throw to grow it back to a 6-point lead.
MSU stretched it back to a 9-point lead with 30 seconds to play.
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