Michigan State loses on crushing buzzer beater in 60-57 collapse against Ohio State
EAST LANSING — "The Book" was open. Until it closed on Xavier Booker.
It was a decision by Tom Izzo that will be questioned by Michigan State basketball fans for a long time.
When Booker went to the bench in the second half of his first collegiate start with 15:10 to play, the Spartans led Ohio State by 10 points. He didn’t play again, and the Buckeyes erased it all, finishing with Dale Bonner draining a 3-pointer with 0.2 seconds to play to hand MSU a stunning 60-57 loss Sunday at Breslin Center.
The crushing loss marked the first time MSU has dropped consecutive home games since January 2016, when the Spartans lost at Breslin to Iowa and Nebraska, with a road loss at Wisconsin sandwiched between them.
"I would say this one stings about as much as any loss I've had in eight or 10 years" Izzo said. "I just felt like we practiced well enough to really play well. I didn't care who they had, I was more worried about us than them. And we didn't.
"So at the end of the day, as it always is, I have to take the responsibility for that. And will."
The Spartans led by 12 points with 11:05 to play. They scored just seven points the rest of the game, with the Buckeyes closing with a 22-7 eruption as Izzo turned first to Carson Cooper and Jaxon Kohler and then rolled with Mady Sissoko for the final 7:43.
Tyson Walker’s layup kept MSU (17-11, 9-8 Big Ten) in front 56-53 with 1:36 to play. But OSU’s Roddy Gayle Jr. hit a pair of free throws with 11.9 seconds remaining after getting fouled by A.J. Hoggard on a layup attempt to give the Buckeyes their first lead.
Walker drew a foul on Bruce Thornton at the other end, but his first free throw clanged off the rim and stuck between it and the backboard. He made the second to tie it again with 6.4 seconds left.
Thornton then caught the inbound pass, dribbled to near midcourt, then lobbed a pass to Bonner in the left corner. He shook Walker’s defense and drained a prayer as the horn sounded, sending the OSU bench tumbling onto the court in celebration and leaving the MSU supporters in shock.
A review showed there were 0.2 seconds left, but the Spartans could not get off a shot.
"It's a disappointment. Nobody likes to lose that way at the end of the game," said MSU senior forward Malik Hall, who scored 15 points with seven rebounds. "Congrats to the person who hit the shot, it was big for their team. But we obviously don't like that. We don't like how it ended the game. Really, just emotionally, we gotta make sure that we're we're locked in.
"We gotta be better. It shouldn't come down to a last-second shot."
It was the first conference road win this season for Ohio State (16-12, 6-11), which lost its first eight, and the second victory in three games for interim coach Jake Diebler.
Walker had 12 points on just 5-for-15 shooting. Hoggard scored nine points with four assists. Jaden Akins went 1-for-9 from the field and missed all three of his deep shots for just four points as the Spartans went just 4-for-16 from 3-point range.
Booker played 17:15 in his first collegiate start, scoring seven points with three rebounds and three blocks — and leaving a massive question about what happens next. Sissoko had six rebounds and four points in 15:54, Cooper went scoreless and without a rebound in 7:03, while Kohler had two points and three boards in 11:38.
Izzo said it was "a coaching decision we made" to stick with his veterans over Booker.
"I thought in some ways, we tried to rotate the guys to get what we could get out of the guys for what we're missing. And rebounding was hurting us," Izzo said. "And that's why we did what we did."
Booker was a plus-11, by nine the Spartans' best plus-minus total. MSU's other three big men were a combined minus-12 (Sissoko minus-6, Cooper minus-5, Kohler minus-1). The Spartans got outrebounded in the second half, 20-14, and 39-33 for the game. Ohio State scored 22 of its 34 points in the paint during the second half, 16 of them coming in the last 13:50 with Booker out of the game.
"I thought I'd go back in, but I trust the coaches' game plan," said Booker, who was 3-for-6 shooting. "I have faith in their game plan. ... They wanted to keep the lineup in that they had in. So I trust coaches, I have faith in them. I feel that they're gonna do the right thing."
Gayle had 12 points and eight rebounds for the Buckeyes, who played without Jamison Battle (ankle). Thornton had 11 points and Felix Okpara had 10 points and six boards.
It was the Spartans' second straight home loss, the fourth of the season, and the first time MSU lost at Breslin to the Buckeyes since 2012.
The Spartans are on spring break this week and don't play again until Saturday, when they travel to Mackey Arena to face No. 3 Purdue. Tipoff is 8 p.m. in West Lafayette, Indiana (Fox).
"I don't know if that is coming at the right time," Hoggard said of the long layoff. "I mean, I think it is and we can focus more on basketball and things like that. But we just kind of have to focus on finding out ways to close out games."
The Boilermakers (25-3, 14-3), who won 84-76 at Michigan on Sunday, will be the third straight single-play opponent for the Spartans. MSU lost at home Tuesday to Iowa, 78-71, in their lone regular-season meeting this season.
Strong start for Booker
About an hour before the game, Izzo confirmed on his pregame radio show that Booker would make his first career start, taking the place of senior Mady Sissoko, who had started the past 21 games and 24 this season.
The 6-foot-11, now 236-pound freshman from Indianapolis averaged 8.1 minutes while playing 19 of the Spartans’ first 27 games. And after winning the tip, Booker got an extended first look — the first media timeout did not come until 5:26 into the game, and Izzo left his rookie out the whole time to get his feet wet.
Booker did his most damage with Sissoko waiting at the scorer’s table and play continuing for about 3½ minutes without a stoppage. Though he was pulled out of position a few times, Booker used his long wingspan to block a pair of shots. He also wasn’t shy to shoot when given an opening, hitting a 3-pointer at the 14-minute mark that put MSU up, 13-8.
Meantime, the Spartans’ new-look offense flowed well early. Hall and Hoggard scored the first 10 points, each setting up the other for a 3-pointer from the same spot in the right corner.
Sissoko and Carson Cooper rotated in together, but the sophomore got two fouls in 2:29 of court time. Izzo then brought in Jaxon Kohler, and Booker got his second shift for the final 5:59 of the half. Kohler hit a tough step-back jumper in the paint over OSU’s Okpara and had two rebounds in his 7:04 of playing time.
Booker also showed his hands by grabbing a loose ball Jaden Akins lost on a drive and turning it into a layup for five points and two rebounds in 12:25 of first-half play.
Defensively, MSU looked elite, limiting the Buckeyes to 7-for-29 shooting and 1-for-10 from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes. Thornton and Gayle were a combined 4-for-12 for 13 points. The Spartans also dominated on the glass, 32-22, with Hall grabbing five with his nine points before picking up two fouls.
Walker was held scoreless until his 3-pointer with inside a minute to play. Then with time winding down, he got the ball back and drove for a layup at the buzzer to send MSU into the locker room leading, 32-22.
Where did Booker go?
The second half began with another long run for Booker, 4:50 before a media stoppage. And he continued to show his potential and tantalizing talents — in one stretch grabbing a defensive rebound, blocking a shot the next time down, then flushing an alley-oop dunk from Hoggard’s lob.
Asked if he thought his day was done when he went to the bench with 15:10 remaining, Booker replied, "No, I did not. I did not."
MSU was getting outrebounded 9-2 at the outset of the second half with Booker on the court, and Izzo also was concerned about his youngster's defense.
"Those guards were running off ball screens, and we just didn't think he was as available to do things as some of our veterans," Izzo said. "Just a coaching decision we made. I love what Booker did, he did a lot of good things. But there were some things that you didn't see that he didn't do on coverages. That's the only thing that changed. He did have some blocks, he did have some things, and give him credit for that. But at the same time, we struggled to rebound the ball."
The Buckeyes wouldn’t go away, with a 3-pointer by Bonner and a post-up layup by Devin Royal over Hoggard. What had been an 11-point Spartan lead quickly got pared to six.
Sissoko, however, showed he still provides value for his team with a tough-angle layup off the glass off a Hoggard feed. Then Tre Holloman snagged a loose-ball rebound and took off in transition, hitting Hoggard for a step-through layup that forced Diebler to call timeout.
Out of that, Holloman again delivered a steal in the paint and took off running. Freshman Coen Carr collected the bounce pass and elevated through traffic for a thunderous dunk that pushed the Spartans’ lead back to 12.
That still wasn’t enough to put away the Buckeyes, whose former coach Chris Holtmann was fired earlier this month.
Okpara threw down a violent dunk over both Cooper and Kohler, sparking a 13-2 run that included a three-point play by Zed Key. Okpara capped it with a hook shot that sliced MSU’s lead to 52-51 with just over six minutes to play and forced Izzo to use a timeout.
Hall delivered a turn-around, step-back jumper from the left side to stop the bleeding. But both teams went into a scoring funk for the next 3½ minutes. A Hall turnover led to a runout for the Buckeyes, with Walker fouling and Gayle hitting two free throws to make it a one-point MSU lead.
At the other end, Walker again attacked off the dribble, contorting his body through the trees to deliver a layup with 1:36 to play that pushed it back to a three-point game. But Royal converted a layup after an OSU timeout.
Then at the other end, Hoggard could not convert on a drive. Sissoko grabbed an offensive board but had it stripped by Bonner. Sissoko also committed a foul with 18.5 ticks remaining.
Booker sat watching it all unravel from the bench.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State collapses in second half, loses 60-57 to Ohio State
