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WASHINGTON − They all knew they stunk it up in the first half. Their postgame mea culpas mirrored their halftime locker room talk.
But 25 minutes of ferocity and tenacity could not overcome Michigan State basketball’s horrendous start. Its missed layups and free throws. Connecticut’s elite talent and depth.
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Ultimately, all of those shortcomings blended into one frustrating finish, for both the 3-seed Spartans’ 67-63 leave-it-all-out-there Sweet 16 loss to 2-seed Connecticut on Friday, March 27, and their season marked by surprise performances and a letdown finlwe at Capital One Arena.
“Going into the second half, there was definitely a different energy. It was win or go home,” said senior Jaxon Kohler, who had 12 points and eight rebounds in his final collegiate game. “I thought we fought really hard, and I thought we gave a great effort. But it wasn’t enough.”
JEFF SEIDEL: Michigan State basketball, after the horn, shows what it’s made of
So ended a 27-8 season for MSU, which made the NCAA Tournament for a record 28th consecutive season and advanced to Tom Izzo’s 17th Sweet 16 in that span. It was his sixth loss in the first game of the second weekend of March Madness, a year after the Spartans made it to an Elite Eight.
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Friday, Izzo lamented all the missed opportunities, such as missing four of 11 layup attempts and five free throws (with two of those in-close misses coming from Jeremy Fears Jr. in the second half along with a missed front end of a 1-and-1 by the All-American point guard in the first half). Blown defensive coverages – “complete breakdowns on our part,” Izzo said – also helped UConn to make six of its first seven 3-point attempts and build a 19-point lead midway through the first half. Inopportune turnovers and blown possessions proved costly in the second half and curtailed momentum once MSU rallied to take a brief one-point lead twice with a little more than 10 minutes left.
“They came out, they hit…
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Publish date : 2026-03-28 09:07:00
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