College Basketball

Izzo’s Michigan State bunch ousts Virginia

Michigan State’s underwhelming regular season would have been different had Branden Dawson not broken a bone in his right hand. The NCAA Tournament has illustrated how sorely he was missed.

Without Dawson, Michigan State went 4-5 down the stretch, but with him, the fourth-seeded Spartans are back in the Elite Eight, 40 minutes from their first Final Four in five years after Friday night’s gutsy 61-59 slugfest of a victory over No. 1 Virginia at the Garden in the East Regional semifinals.

“It was tough on me, just watching those guys play each and every night,” said Dawson, who foolishly suffered the injury by slamming a table while watching film of his lackluster play. Dawson scored a game-high 24 points and added 10 rebounds Friday.

“For me, making the bad decision, I learned from it a lot. It didn’t stop me from coming and working hard. Being out for those nine games, I told myself my team needed me and I needed to step up and be a man. That’s what I did.”

Coach Tom Izzo’s surging Spartans, winners of six straight games, will face No. 7 UConn, an 81-76 winner over Iowa State in the opener, on Sunday at 2:20 p.m.

The versatile and at times enigmatic 6-foot-6 Dawson, an electric athlete who has posted his two highest-scoring games of the year in Michigan State’s last two tournament victories, was at his best when the Spartans needed him most.

He either scored or assisted on the Big Ten dynamo’s first 12 points of the second half while Virginia clamped down on his teammates. He kept Michigan State within striking distance and keyed a 7-0 run that gave the Spartans the lead with 9:13 left. His acrobatic alley-oop layup while under the hoop with 6:09 to go pushed the lead to 49-42 as Virginia was misfiring.

“Dawson makes all the difference,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “He’s a matchup problem because he’s so explosive, so athletic. He doesn’t need a lot of shot, he’s always around the ball, he plays much bigger than his height. They were good without him; with him, they’re really good.”

The Cavaliers (30-7) responded with a 9-2 run and pulled even on a Justin Anderson 3-pointer with 1:53 to go. Adreian Payne answered with a tie-breaking 3-pointer on the other end, then fed Dawson for a slam. Early in the possession, the 6-foot-10 Payne passed up the shot, prompting a timeout. Izzo wanted to know why his star senior was suddenly gun-shy.

“I said, ‘I should’ve shot it, I didn’t read it right,’ ” Payne recalled. “I said, ‘I’m going to knock this next one down if I get it.’ ”

Payne scored 16 points in support of Dawson and Joe Harris had 17 for Virginia.

There was a long stretch of the season when such a run seemed unlikely. Michigan State (29-8) lost seven of 12, falling to Big Ten also-ran Illinois at home. while playing without starters Dawson, Gary Harris, Payne and Keith Appling. The Spartans, a chic pick in November to cut the nets down in Arlington, Texas, nearly fell out of the top 25, but those struggles made them tougher, which was evident down the stretch of this grinder of a game.

“I give our guys a lot of credit,” Izzo said. “This team, I think, learned through the adversity of what we dealt with when we had all the guys injured, we just got to keep battling. As my football coach [Mark Dantonio] says, you got to stay the course.”