Michigan State led Ole Miss for just 3:49; pulls off Sweet 16 win anyway

ATLANTA — Six-seed Ole Miss was a -3.5 underdog heading into Friday’s Sweet 16 matchup against the Michigan State Spartans, but they sure didn’t play like it for most of the game. That made the Rebels’ 70-73 loss to Michigan State even more painful.

The first half was mostly the Rebels’ show. They held a lead over MSU for 18:31, they never trailed, and they scored nine points off turnovers, 18 in the paint, but were just four of 14 from behind the three-point line. During the regular season that was the Rebels’ strength — incidentally, defending the three is a strength for the Spartans, which made this a less-than-ideal matchup for Ole Miss from jump.

But again — it didn’t look that way in the first half when the Spartans were turning the ball over seven times. Ole Miss took advantage. They scored 11 points on fast breaks against MSU’s three.

After the game, Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo described what happened during an early time out.

“[I] asked them what the hell they’re doing. We went out dirty,” Izzo said. “We went out not doing a good job offensively. They hit slips. The real killer was the turnovers. We had turnovers, and they were kind of ridiculous turnovers.”

And it wasn’t just the turnovers.

“We gave up a missed cutoff free throw. We gave up out of bounds plays,” Izzo said. “[Ole Miss is] supposed to be a poor rebounding team, and they kicked our butts. They had 12 offensive rebounds to our 5. What you should do is give them a lot of credit, and yet give us a lot of credit for bouncing back in the second half.”

And bounce back they did. Michigan State took the lead in this one for the first time with just 7:50 left to play, and while Ole Miss didn’t let up, Michigan State got the momentum they needed to finish it off and advance. Guard Jaden Akins, who played 31 minutes on Friday night, said after the game that the defensive key in the second half was to slow down Ole Miss’ top scorer, Sean Pedulla.

“We knew they had five guys that could drive it, so I feel like they were doing that at will really in the first half. We weren’t in our gaps how we should have been,” Akins said. “At halftime we talked about that a lot just trying to keep them out of the paint and slow Pedulla down. He still had a good game, but I felt we kept him out of the paint a little better in the second half, and that’s the reason why we won.”

Pedulla did have a great game, finishing the night with 24 points, three rebounds, and four assists. His teammate, guard Matthew Murrell, added 14 points, four rebounds, and one assist. He also scored the final shot of the game, a buzzer-beating three that kept the Rebels from losing by six.

Michigan State advances to face the top-seeded Auburn Tigers in the Elite 8 on Sunday, March 30, after Auburn’s 78-65 win over the Michigan Wolverines on Friday night.