Through three rounds of the NCAA Tournament, cold spells in February and stretches where offense was a puzzle, Michigan State University men's basketball had an inherent ability to find just enough to win. 

On Sunday night in Atlanta, when the shots didn’t fall, the Spartans ran out of answers — and time. 

There was no rally this time against the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed.

No. 2 seed MSU shot 22-for-64 (34%) in a 70-64 loss to No. 1 seed Auburn in the Elite Eight, going cold for two 10-minutes stretches — one in each half — that produced identical 2-for-16 spells, the first of which propelling the Tigers to a 17-0 run midway through the first half. 

The Spartans started 1-for-9 from deep as they went down 23-8 early, finishing 7-for-23 from long range. 

"I think we got a lot of good shots during that run," redshirt freshman guard Jeremy Fears Jr. said postgame. "I think we had maybe three or four wide open shots that we could have made."

What followed was a finish befitting a season defined by margins: narrow wins, tight second halves and a team that walked the line of elite all year. 

"I feel like we missed some easy looks at the basket early," senior guard Jaden Akins said. 

Despite a late push that cut the deficit to single digits in the final two minutes, the Spartans could never escape the damage done by those long offensive droughts. At the center of it were their veteran guards — who got them to this point, but couldn’t carry them over the top.