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On to the next one: MSU survives late Georgia rally to advance, 70-63

March 20, 2015
<p>Freshman guard Lourawls "Tum Tum" Nairn Jr. fights past Georgia guard Taylor Echols Mar. 20, 2015, during the first round of the NCAA tournament in a game against Georgia at The Time Warner Cable Arena In Charlotte, North Carolina. MSU won the game 70-63, Alice Kole /The State News</p>

Freshman guard Lourawls "Tum Tum" Nairn Jr. fights past Georgia guard Taylor Echols Mar. 20, 2015, during the first round of the NCAA tournament in a game against Georgia at The Time Warner Cable Arena In Charlotte, North Carolina. MSU won the game 70-63, Alice Kole /The State News

Photo by Alice Kole | The State News

Charlotte, North Carolina — Senior forward Branden Dawson picked up two fouls in the first half and took an early seat on the bench, but despite Dawson's absence for much of the first 20 minutes, the Spartans overcame a slow start and cruised to a win over Georgia.

Well, almost cruised. The Bulldogs cut the lead to three with 21 seconds left in what was yet another late game collapse for the Spartans, but Dawson's second half emergence and junior guard Denzel Valentine's 6-for-6 free throw shooting in the final 30 seconds helped MSU escape with a 70-63 victory.

MSU will have a rematch against No. 2 seed Virginia in the third round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday. The Spartans defeated Virginia in the Sweet Sixteen round last year.

Dawson finished with 14 points and six rebounds on 6-for-9 shooting, getting all of his points and rebounds in the second half.

He said he couldn't remember the last time he had missed that much time with foul trouble.

"That was frustrating, that was definitely frustrating," Dawson said. "It has been a while since I played 23 minutes in foul trouble. It was hard. First tournament game, could've been my last one. There were definitely a lot of thoughts going through my head, but I had to keep telling myself you're a senior, and I knew that my team needed me so I had to get on the floor."

Valentine had 16 points, six assists and six rebounds, and senior guard Travis Trice added 15 points and six assists.

MSU missed five of their first six shots and trailed Georgia 9-3 five minutes into the game. From that point on, MSU outscored Georgia in the first half, 32-13.

With Dawson on the bench and sophomore forward Gavin Schilling taking an early seat on the bench with foul trouble, head coach Tom Izzo ran with junior walk-on forward Colby Wollenman and freshman forward Marvin Clark for much of the first half.

The duo stepped up defensively, helping MSU shut down Georgia for the remainder of the half.

"It was phenomenal," Izzo said of the play of Wollenman and Clark. "We just had no choice. Colby is a doctor, he's in medical school so smart as they come and you really could -- he really understands things. And Marv is a guy that I think has grown as much as anybody. He was a kid that didn't play until he gotto high school so he's behind in some ways. He's improving, he's listening."

Trice nailed a triple with under a minute left to give MSU a 13-point advantage entering halftime.

Georgia came out strong in the second half. Junior guard Charles Mann, who led Georgia with 19 points, got to the rim for an And-1 layup at the 16:09 mark to cut MSU's lead to three, 39-33. To make matters worse, Dawson, Schilling and junior forward Matt Costello each picked up their third foul with the first five minutes of the half.

Mann answered an airballed corner 3-point try by Clark with a runner to cut MSU's lead down to two, 39-37, and extend the Bulldog run to 15-4.

With three fouls, Dawson entered the game at the 13:10 mark and went on to score MSU's next eight points, a run that included back-to-back 3-point plays.

"Big time game for him," freshman guard Lourawls "Tum Tum" Nairn said. "A lot of players would have put their head down after a start like that, picking up two quick fouls. He came out strong in the second half and made big time plays for us."

Junior guard Bryn Forbes, who had 14 points for the game," connected on a triple from the corner at the 9:20 mark to extend MSU's lead to 11 and force a Georgia timeout. Forbes knocked down his second triple of the half two minutes later, was fouled on the shot, and converted the four point play to extend MSU's lead to 58-45.

Georgia responded with a 5-0 run and made the game close towards the end. Players said they were happy with the win, but to close out stronger would've added to the victory.

"We're happy to move on, but coach told us he wanted to be different from all the other teams, the higher seeds came out with no energy, no passion," Dawson said. "Coach told us he wanted to come out different. We definitely could've played well."

Izzo said the Spartans aren't playing as smart as they should be, and that it falls on him to fix that. But he complemented MSU's toughness in this game and said the Spartans will look to improve on playing intelligently with a Sweet Sixteen rematch with No. 2 seed Virginia approaching on Sunday.

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"Sometimes, I've got to tell you, it's an out of body experience once in a while the things we do for no reason," Izzo said. "Clock's on our side, we talk about it and we've made a few mistakes. I guess somewhere seriously I've got to take onus on that because it's my job to make sure they know what they're doing at certain times. We'll try to get better with that in the next two days."

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