Michigan State way too much for LSU to handle as Tigers' season ends

Fundamentally sound Michigan State, a well-oiled picture of offensive polish and defensive poise, made its 80-63 East Region semifinal victory over the Tigers in Capital One Arena appear fairly easy from start to finish.

The Spartans, top-heavy with NCAA tournament experience, looked the part of a team using lessons learned the last two seasons when it uncharacteristically twice failed to advance to the Sweet 16 after losing in the 2015 Final Four semifinals to national champion Duke.

The domination of LSU advanced the Big Ten regular season and tourney champ Spartans, now 31-6, to Sunday’s finals against the winner of Friday night’s second semifinal between top-seeded Duke and No. 4 seed Virginia Tech.

LSU, which won the SEC regular season title for the first time since 2009, finished 28-7. The 17-point loss to the Spartans was the Tigers’ worst large margin of the season.

"You could tell those guys have been here (to the NCAA tournament) before," LSU guard Skylar Mays said. "They have a lot more experience. They hit us first, we hit back and they were able to hit back again in the second half. They are a great team with a lot of weapons that were on full display. They beat us every way possible."

After Michigan State grabbed an 8-0 lead in the game’s first two minutes, it rarely felt threatened except at the start of the second half. That’s when seven straight points by LSU guard Tremont Waters in an 8-0 Tigers’ run cut the Spartans’ 40-28 halftime lead to just 40-36 in a matter of two minutes.

A couple of minutes later, Michigan State got back to business. Sparked by crafty junior guard Cassius Winston, the Big Ten Player of the Year who finished with 17 points and eight assists, the Spartans scored 11 straight points to equal the 15-point lead they held late in the first half.

Despite LSU doing a better job rebounding after getting destroyed on the boards in the first half and with Waters in a heightened attack mode, the Tigers sliced the Michigan State lead to single-digits just once in the game's last 15 minutes after LSU’s second-half opening salvo.

The Spartans simply had too much firepower, with four players scoring in double figures. The biggest stunner was freshman forward Gabe Brown, who came off the bench to score 15 points including four 3’s after previously hitting just 12 3’s all season.

Waters, the Tigers’ All-SEC first-team point guard, led LSU with 23 points. Forward Naz Reid had 10 points and 9 rebounds while forward Kavell Bigby-Williams finished with 11 points and 5 rebounds.

"I thought we had a great game plan," LSU interim coach Tony Benford said. "We wanted to protect the paint and try to get the ball in the paint. But they had some guys that stepped up. At the end of the day ,they flipped it on us on the glass. We had to rebound, protect our end, and whoever won the rebound battle I feel like was going to win the game."

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo knew that, too. It's why the Spartans' first-half rebounding, 21-10 domination of LSU including 10 offensive boards leading to 12 second-chance points, set the tone for the Spartans.

"We put signs in the locker room, we put signs in the hotel rooms, we put signs in the hotel eating area -- cut out, rebound; cut out, rebound; cut out, rebound," Izzo said. "I thought we were unbelievable on the boards in the first half and that was the difference in the game."

The loss finished LSU’s season two wins shy of advancing to the Tigers’ fifth Final Four trip in history.

It wasn’t the storybook ending LSU wanted.

But considering what the Tigers endured at the beginning of season with the murder of teammate Wayde Sims and at the end of the year with the indefinite suspension three weeks ago of head coach Will Wade for his alleged involvement in a federally investigated college basketball recruiting scandal, LSU was still one of this tourney’s most amazing stories.

The Tigers were the second largest underdog in the Sweet 16 field, with the Spartans a 6½-point favorite at tipoff. Also, ESPN’s basketball power index gave Michigan State an 81 percent chance to win, the highest any of eight Sweet 16 teams playing Friday night in the East and Midwest Regions.

Entering Friday’s game, the No. 3 seeded Tigers were hoping for third-seed magic against the second-seeded Spartans after No. 3 seeds Purdue and Texas Tech won South and West Region semifinals respectively over No. 2 seeds Tennessee and Michigan on Thursday night.

LSU’s pregame keys to victory were the same as they’ve been for a while.

The Tigers, wanting to work their offense inside-out, needed to keep Reid and Bigby-Williams out of foul trouble for as long as possible. Also, LSU, with guards Waters, Mays and Javonte Smart had to keep attacking Michigan State’s defense in hopes of causing chaos in the paint. LSU, the SEC’s leading rebounding team, needed to stay even on the boards with the Spartans, the Big Ten’s best rebounding unit.

So how did that checklist to work for the Tigers?

Obviously, not too well.

Reid and Bigby-Williams avoided foul trouble, basically Michigan State never really had to go offensively inside to score. Six different Spartans combined to hit 13-of-32 3s.

Too many times, wide-open Michigan State shooters were allowed to step into 3-point shots. Winston, who made 3-of-7 3s, credited the Spartans' coaching staff for a good scouting job to get the numerous good looks.

"Just from the coaches watching the scouts and watching their games, they (LSU) rallied to the ball a lot," Winston said. "So getting in the paint, creating all that chaos and then kicking it out and having our guys ready to shoot, that was part of our game plan going into the game."

Only Waters was successfully able to infiltrate the Michigan State defense and get to the basket. He hit five of LSU’s nine made free throws. Neither Mays or Smart attempted a free throw and that duo was a combined 3-for-14 from the field to highlight the Tigers getting outshot from the field by the Spartans 46.9 percent to 39.3.

On the couple of occasions that LSU briefly rallied, including trailing by nine points at 70-61 with 3:06, Michigan State slammed the door with gusto with a closing 10-2 burst.

"You gotta give kudos to them," Waters said. "They're a great 3-point shooting team the way they move the ball and everything and they were able to make big-time shots"

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