San Antonio - There were two reasons MSU stayed neck and neck with Texas for most of the South Regional final - their names are Paul Davis and Erazem Lorbek.
The Spartans' two freshmen kept the No. 7 seed Spartans in the game all evening by calling for the ball in crunch time and making key buckets in traffic. But there was only so much they could do as MSU fell to No. 1 seed Texas 85-76 Sunday.
"We just wanted to do whatever it took to win this game," Lorbek said. "We made some mistakes and we played pretty good on offense, but our defense was the problem."
The play of both big men in both Friday's win over Maryland and Sunday's loss garnered them a place on the South Regional All-Tournament Team.
"I thought Paul and Erazem played really well," MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. "They wore down a bit, but they did play really well for the whole game. Both of them rebounded the ball, and at least someone could score.
"Our guys were pretty good, but their guys were really good."
Davis led the Spartans with 15 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field while grabbing seven rebounds. Lorbek added 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting and pulled down a game-high nine rebounds.
Lorbek displayed most of his talents in the opening minutes of the first half. The 6-foot-10 forward's first bucket was a smooth left-handed layup that followed a picturesque 3-point fake.
Two minutes later, after already dropping an 18-footer, Lorbek answered a Texas 3-pointer with one of his own to give MSU an 11-8 lead.
"The atmosphere was so big, I just wanted to come right out and play well because I wanted to go to the Final Four," Lorbek said. "It just wasn't enough."
Similar to his late-game heroics against Maryland in the Sweet 16, Davis was quiet through much of the game before having a coming-out party of sorts in the last eight minutes.
With the Spartans trailing 66-58, Davis screamed for the ball on a cut. Sophomore forward/guard Alan Anderson granted Davis' wish. The 6-foot-10 Rochester native hit a tough leaner with four hands in his face while drawing a foul. He would drain the free throw to bring MSU within five.
Two minutes later, Davis used his defense to spark a MSU surge. MSU trailed 72-63 and had just missed a triple.
Texas guard T.J. Ford pushed the ball up the floor but Davis denied the 2-on-2 layup with a rejection on forward Brian Boddicker.
Davis split a pair of free throws with four minutes remaining to finish off his scoring, but MSU never got closer than five.
"Our outside shots weren't falling the whole game, so we just wanted to get the ball inside," Davis said. "And when we were hitting the shots down low, there was no reason to stop going down there."
