Coen Carr had 21 points and 10 rebounds, Jeremy Fears Jr. scored 12 points with 16 assists and No. 3 seed Michigan State locked down Louisville in a 77-69 win on Saturday to advance to the Sweet 16 for the 17th time under Tom Izzo.
Fears set a Michigan State NCAA Tournament assists record and Carr helped carry the offense for the Spartans (27-7) and fell one point shy of his career high.
Two Fears’ free throws with 2:10 remaining gave Michigan State a double-digit lead, 70-59, and the Spartans smothered Louisville into a contested shot airball that started the foul shot parade. Fears and Carr both missed free throws down the stretch and the Cardinals closed within six in the final 30 seconds but couldn’t further close the gap.
Louisville leading scorer Ryan Conwell played through a left foot injury in the second half and did not appear to have his typical spring. Conwell had 21 points and made 5 of 11 attempts from 3-point range for the Cardinals (24-11).
He circled from the baseline around multiple screens to come free for a 25-foot 3 that made it 63-53 at the 5-minute mark only to see Carr square to the basket just in front in the Spartans’ bench and drain a triple of his own. Carr was set up by Fears’ 14th assist, setting the team NCAA Tournament record.
The Spartans head to the East Region semifinal in Washington, D.C., where their first game in the Sweet 16 will be the winner of seventh-seeded UCLA and No. 2 seed UConn. UCLA defeated Michigan State in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals, 88-84, March 13. The Spartans won the regular-season meeting, 82-59, in February.
Louisville’s Adrian Wooley, who added 17 points, knocked down his fourth shot in a row, a corner 3, keeping the deficit at 10.
Carr caught a no-look pass from Fears on the right block with the shot clock near expiration and rattled in a reverse-pivot jumper plus a free throw for a 58-50 advantage with 7:30 left, then came up with a block of Conwell in the center of the lane and ripped away the loose ball in a game-shifting moment. At the other end, Louisville’s Vangelis Zougris was whistled for a flagrant-1 foul on Jaxon Kohler with 7:12 remaining. Kohler made the pair of free throws to stretch the lead to 10.
Carr extended the possession with an offensive rebound and save that wound up in Kohler’s hands for a 3 on a pick-and-pop with Fears to balloon Michigan State’s lead to 13.
Michigan State found offense from Trey Fort, who connected on his third 3 of the game on Fears’ 11th assist to keep the Spartans ahead 53-47 at the 10-minute mark. The Spartans got 21 points off the bench — 12 from Fort — and forced 15 turnovers.
