BY DYLAN O’LOUGHLIN
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Coen Carr finished with a game-high double-double of 21 points and 10 rebounds while Jeremy Fears Jr finished with a 12-point, 16-assist double-double to lead the No. 3 Michigan State Spartans to a 77-69 Round of 32 victory over the No. 6 Louisville Cardinals. Up five coming out of the locker room, Carr netted 14 points in the final 20 minutes as the Spartans opened up as large as a 13-point lead to put the game away. With the night, it is also the junior’s first double-double as a Spartan.
“It means a lot,” Carr stated about his performance. “Just to be in March Madness, one of the greatest stages on earth, and to have a game like this, I just credit it to my coaches, my teammates, just for always believing in me. They want me to go out there and be aggressive, and that’s what I tried to focus on today.”
With just over 10 minutes to go in the second half, the Spartans maintained an eight-point lead after two emphatic slams from Carr. This lead carried until about eight minutes to go as back-to-back triples from Louisville’s Aly Khalifa and Adrian Wooley cut the lead to 55-50 and Michigan State needed a timeout.
Coming out of the timeout though, the Spartans went on a 13-6 run thanks the scoring of Carr and senior Jaxon Kohler to take a 68-56 lead with 2:41 remaining in regulation. Michigan State extended that lead to 13 with 1:54 left on the clock after a bucket from senior Carson Cooper and despite a 10-3 run to end the game from the Cardinals, it was too little to late.
“I think just being aggressive from the start,” Carr said about being able to put up a double-double. “I feel like also my rebounding and the defensive end can also propel me on the offensive end. So starting off there, rebounding the ball, attacking the glass hard, just getting comfortable early, just being able to touch the basketball and things like that, I feel like that helps me a lot.
Fears Jr controlled the game for the Spartans in the second half. After finishing the opening 20 with five points, six assists and three turnovers, the red shirt sophomore increased the points and assists while cutting down on turnovers in the second half ending with with seven points, 10 assists and two turnovers. With the 16-assist night, Fears Jr set a new record for assists in a tournament game at KeyBank Center, breaking Denny Crum’s record of 15 back in 2000 with Temple.
On the year, Fears Jr now has 321 assists and averages almost 10 a game, leading the nation.
“My favorite thing passing is seeing my other teammates score and the joy and the excitement it brings them,” Fears explained about why he passes so much. “If they’re happy, I’m happy. Just to see somebody get a dunk or somebody hit a three and you know they’re hyped, I’m hyped with them. So it’s just a great feeling somebody else be successful.”
“I give a lot of credit to Jeremy (Fears Jr),” Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo said. “We’ve had our knock-downs, as I have with most of my point guards. Point guards are hard. I wouldn’t want to come here and play the point. You get the ball, but you also get harassed and pushed and prodded, and expectations are high of our point guards because what we give them, we need to get in return. Jeremy, he’s just getting better. He’s just getting better right now, and he’s getting better every week, and he’s so much better in my office. I love my office time with Jeremy. I love my late-night texts with Jeremy. That’s where you really kind of watch a guy grow, and then when he starts saying what you’ve already said to him on the side, when you hear him saying it in practice, that’s pretty cool.”
In the first half, Michigan State only trailed for the first two minutes after going down 4-0 to start the game. But, a 9-3 run thanks to a quick five points from Carr, a dunk from Cooper and two free throws from Fears Jr gave the Spartans a 9-7 lead it did not lose the rest of the way. Michigan State went on to shoot 46 percent from the field (13-28) and 50 percent from three-point land (7-14) in the first half to maintain the lead.
Eight different Spartans put points on the board in the first half including Kur Teng with six points and Trey Fort with four points off the bench. Fort finished with 12 points on the day, shooting 3-5 from downtown, including an and-one triple to extend the lead to eight with 3:47 to go in the first after Louisville got the score back to the closest it’s been since 9-7.
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In a grinding season for the transfer from Samford, who lost to the Spartans in the first round of March Madness two years ago at Mississippi State, the work paid off.
“This is why you choose Michigan State,” Fort commented on his performance. “My first time in this tournament I was playing against these guys, and you know how good it feels to be on this side? It feels amazing. We’ve had great moments throughout the entire season, but times like this during March when the whole world is watching you, and for us to be able to come out here and do this, it’s the best feeling in the world. We’re playing the game that we love. We don’t want to be doing anything else. So for us we just want to keep these things going together.
To go along with Carr and Fears double-double’s, Fort finished with 12 points and five rebounds while Kohler chipped in 10 points and six boards. Cooper followed with nine points, five rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal while Teng added seven points.
Despite the win, Izzo and Michigan State know there’s still things to work on including turnovers as the Spartans finished with 15, their third most in a game this season.
“We made some mistakes. We turned the damn ball over too much. What did we end up with, 15? That’s on all of us, including me,” Izzo stated. “I should have called a time-out when Jeremy was trapped. So that one was on me. So the good news is you’re in good company. We all screwed up a little bit.”
For Louisville, Ryan Conwell led the way with 21 points, four rebounds and four assists in the last game of his collegiate career. Wooley posted 17 points, four boards and three assists while Isaac McKneely connected on three triples for nine points. The duo down low of Vangelis Zougris and Aly Khalifa chipped in eight points apiece.
Despite the loss, Louisville has made it to the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back years. To go along with that, Cardinals head coach Pat Kelsey earned his first career March Madness victory with the 83-79 win over South Florida in the first round.
“Proud of what we’ve built over the last two years,” Kelsey explained about the his time at Louisville so far. “You’ve been in Louisville for a long time. You know. Unless you stand on that podium and the confetti is coming down, you don’t meet the standard. There’s three National Championships at Louisville. I’m well aware. I know what I signed up for. I’m proud of the last two years. Those were fun teams to coach, great kids, did a lot for this city, with last year’s revival team, this year we won a game in the tournament. I’m not trying to sell what we did and stuff like that. You know me, I’m about the next thing.”
For Michigan State, the Spartans are now 19-8 in the second round and 17-5 under Izzo. The Spartans also improve their all-time tournament record to 78-73 and advance to the Sweet 16 for the 23rd time in program history and 17th time in the last 20 appearances.
“You just prolonged my retirement for two years because that’s the ultimate compliment,” Izzo jokingly stated about the sustained excellence at Michigan State. “And it’s because at our place, we play for the players that have played before us, and we play for the players that are playing with us. We sure as hell play for the name on the front. In this day and age, that’s getting a little tougher to do. But I’m blessed. I am blessed, from the Magics to the Steve Smiths to the Cleaveses and all the people right up the road, all the people I’ve been somewhat associated with, they’re the same people. So I get credit for something that I just stole. I just kind of — you know, I have those guys call my guys. I believe in what I believe in, and I believe that our job is to make them better for 70 years, not for 20. So if you think that no matter what team you saw, you see similar things, ultimate compliment. Thank you.”
Michigan State improves to 27-7 on the season and to 26-9 in the second game of an NCAA Tournament weekend with seven of the nine losses coming to No. 1 seeds or eventual champions. The Spartans get the week off and are back in action in the Sweet 16, facing the winner of No. 7 UCLA vs. No. 2 UConn being played Sunday, March 22 at 8:45 p.m.
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