Michigan State women's fourth-quarter rally runs out of time in NCAA tourney loss to North Carolina
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Michigan State’s women’s basketball team just needed another quarter. Another possession even. Eventually, the Spartans looked like they would have found a way to win this uphill fight against 8-seed North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
They dug too deep a hole. Took too long to get the game close enough for the Tar Heels to feel the heat. Got in too much foul trouble. Gave up too many rebounds. And never were able to string enough possessions together offensively to gain any real momentum. And so they're headed home after a 59-56 defeat Thursday at South Carolina’s Colonial Life Arena.
They nearly pulled it off, though, despite trailing by 16 points in the first quarter and 15 in the fourth — with Theryn Hallock’s corner 3-pointer with 5.4 seconds left cutting the deficit to 57-56.
"That's us. We are tough," senior Moira Joiner said after her final game at MSU. "We are not going to give up. Teams might think we're out of it, but we are still right there behind you. I think we proved that today. Wish it was a different result."
A quick foul looked like it would give the Spartans the ball back with no worse than a chance to tie in the final seconds. But after Deja Kelly missed the second of two free throws, North Carolina grabbed its 17th offensive rebound. And after Kelly was fouled again and missed another, the Tar Heels grabbed the rebound again and ran out the clock. On the day, the Tar Heels out-rebounded MSU 45-27, including 18-6 on the offensive end.
MSU got back into the game by outscoring North Carolina 21-7 over a six-minute stretch in the fourth quarter. But things didn’t get really tight until the final minute, when Dee Dee Hagemann was fouled on a 3-point attempt and made all three free throws to cut the Tar Heels' lead to 54-49 with 48 seconds left.
Hagemann then came up with a steal and got the ball back from Moira Joiner for a layup to make it 54-51 with 38 seconds to play.
After Kelly drew a foul and made one of two free throws, Tory Ozment countered with a layup on an inbounds play on the other end.
Two free throws by North Carolina’s Lexi Donarski put the Tar Heel’s ahead 57-53 with 12.6 seconds remaining, before Hallock buried that corner 3.
“Honestly, when Dee Dee got fouled on the 3 and made those free throws, it kind of felt like the momentum switch to our side,” Ozment said, after also playing her last game at MSU. “But when Theryn hit that 3, that was huge. I kind of thought in the back of my mind, ‘We’re going win this game.' I think we all did in that huddle.”
Hallock and Julia Ayrault led the Spartans with 14 points apiece. Ayrault also had nine rebounds. Joiner had 13 points. Hagemann tallied nine, with eight assists and just two turnovers.
MSU, the 8 seed in the Albany Region of the NCAA tournament, finishes Robyn Fralick’s first season 22-9.
"She came in and changed the program," said Hallock, a sophomore. "And I can't wait to see what I can do in the next couple years with her as a coach and for the future and the culture of this program."
It took the Spartans a while to get their feet under them Thursday. They trailed by as much as 23-7 late in the first quarter, made worse by severe foul trouble that hampered attempts to turn the game with their defense. North Carolina just looked a step ahead.
"After that, we kind of found our way," Fralick said. "We have Mo (Joiner) and Ju (Ayrault) in foul trouble. We were out of sorts. And credit to North Carolina, they've been a very, very good defensive team. They've hung their hat on that. They are really big. Their length and size, I think it took us a bit to adjust to that. That's not something we see every day and we sure don't see it with ourselves going against ourselves."
The first sign of hope came right before the first quarter ended, when, as MSU's Jocelyn Tate pestered Kelly at the top of the key, Hallock stole the ball and took it the other way for a layup, giving the Spartans some energy.
Early second-quarter 3-pointers by Joiner and then Ayrault cut the deficit to 23-16.
Not long after, however, Joiner picked up her third foul and, with her on the bench, North Carolina regained control. She checked back in with the Spartans down 28-16 with 5:51 left until halftime and, while the deficit did hit 30-16, helped MSU work its way back to down just eight at the half, without picking up another foul. However Ayrault was whistled for her third, a tough call, in the final minute of the half.
Ozment’s post move and bucket just before the buzzer made it 35-27, and gave MSU a measure of momentum heading into the break.
It was momentum the Spartans couldn’t keep, however, failing to score for more than four minutes of the third quarter. MSU kept battling, but couldn’t get closer than seven, 44-37 — after a leaning 15-foot bank shot by Joiner at the beginning of the fourth quarter — until the final minute.
"I'm proud of our team," Fralick said. "... (We) gave ourselves some hope there right to the end.
"There's going to be things we are going to think we could have done better and this and that, and we are going to be able to pick that apart, but the bigger part of this game is, I'm just really, really proud of our team for this season."
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Graham_Couch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU women's basketball's late rally falls short in NCAA tournament
