Atlanta — More than a year ago, Tom Izzo vowed a resurrection. He’d take his Michigan State team deeper in the NCAA Tournament. A blueblood whose March pulse had cooled set course for a return to lofty expectations. The Big Ten throne. A shot at the Final Four.
Do it or die trying.
Michigan State’s season ended in the Elite Eight with a 70-64 loss to No. 1 seed Auburn on Sunday at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena. It was a season that surpassed all expectations at its beginning, but one in which its flaws of poorly timed turnovers and inefficient shooting finally caught up to it against a juggernaut.
BOX SCORE: Auburn 70, Michigan State 64
“I thought we had a real chance to win the game, but we didn’t do it,” Izzo said.
For wide swaths of Sunday’s game, Michigan State (30-7) hung in and traded blows with Auburn (32-5). But a 17-0 run five minutes into the first half took the game over, and so did a crowd that skewed heavily toward the Tigers. The Spartans could never quite come back from that run, even with bursts of its own.
“They made a run. They made some big-time shots,” point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. said. “I think we let the crowd get into it a little bit. Then they got their energy and their juice flowing.”
Auburn’s Johni Broome had his fingerprints all over his team’s win, notching a double-double by halftime en route to a 25-point, 14-rebound performance. The Naismith player of the year hopeful finished it on one arm, his right injured in a second half fall, though he returned and delivered a knockout blow with a 3.
“I just think our guys, they’ve trusted us with a game plan,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “And one of the things that we just talked about, if we do these things offensively and then if we do these things defensively, we’re going to win the game, and they did, and we did.”
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More than that, Michigan State struggled to find its rhythm on offense. After taking an 8-6 lead 4:10 into the game, Michigan State ceded a couple of buckets. Center Carson Cooper and guard Tre Holloman combined for three turnovers, and Holloman and guard Jaden Akins couldn’t hit open shots. The duo finished a combined 1-for-14 in the first half and 6-for-27 in the game, Holloman missing all 10 of his attempts.
“It was a problem all year, and we didn’t do the job,” Izzo said. “I thought Tre is a good-enough 3-point shooter and he struggled today. They did a pretty good job on Jase (Richardson), and Jaden (Akins) got some at the end.
“… But we beat a lot of good teams with that being a problem worse than it was today. It was, I think, those turnovers for touchdowns. We had a couple defensive lapses.”
Even second-chance opportunities couldn’t spark a stagnant offense. In one sequence down 20-8 with 11:45 left in the first half, three straight offensive rebounds resulted in three missed 3-pointers from Akins and Holloman.
“Just having that possession, it was deflating in a way,” said Richardson, who had 11 points in the loss and now enters an offseason of NBA intrigue. “I mean, when you get four good looks and none of them go down, and then they come down and score and the crowd gets involved, it really hurts.”
Michigan State battled back. Frankie Fidler played perhaps the best game of his transfer career with nine points and five rebounds off the bench. He brought the Spartans to leveled energy, with free throws and an elbow 3 sparking a 7-0 run. The rest of the way, the teams traded blows en route to a 33-24 Auburn lead at halftime. Michigan State won the second half, 40-37.
“That big lead we let ‘em get off to kind of hurt us in the long run,” Fears said.
In the second half, forward Jaxon Kohler started getting the better of his matchup with Broome. He scored 11 of his team-leading 17 points in the second half, grabbing five of his 11 rebounds in the process. Piece by piece, he chipped away at Auburn’s lead.
But for every piece Kohler took, Broome asserted Auburn’s lead. Around him, guards Tahaad Pettiford and Chad Baker-Mazara shook off a 7-for-25 team stat line from 3 to hit a few back-breaking shots. For the majority of the second half, Auburn led by double digits, up 50-40 halfway through the final frame.
Auburn led by as much as 14 in the second half, reached by Denver Jones free throws with 4:10 to play. Michigan State’s time to make a comeback dwindled.
Out of a timeout, Akins fought tooth and nail to bring Michigan State back. He scored 13 of its final 16 points, with Kohler’s third 3 of the game making the other score. In the final game of a four-year Spartans career, Akins willed his team to within six points as Auburn’s executional errors opened the door. In the end, that big first half run was too much for Michigan State to overcome.
“It stings right now,” Akins said. “I felt like we had a chance to still be playing. … I tried to go out as best as possible.”
This season is Michigan State’s first run to the Elite Eight and first 30-win season since 2019. This is Michigan State’s first loss in the Elite Eight since 2014, and Izzo’s first loss to an SEC school in NCAA Tournament history.
Auburn will play Florida in the Final Four in San Antonio at 6:09 p.m. Friday. It’s the program’s second Final Four in school history.
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