Seattle - Paul Davis couldn't watch. He sat on the bench with his head down, picking at a towel as Nevada's Todd Okeson hit the free throws that put a fork in his sophomore season.
For the second time in the last four games, Davis sat helpless as his team's offense crumbled without him. Despite leading most of the game, MSU (18-12) couldn't hit a shot in crunch time and lost to Nevada (24-8), 72-66, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at KeyArena Thursday.
"I thought this time would be different, I really thought we had it in us and we got some good shots, they just didn't fall," Davis said. "Their shots did. It's almost like the same story."
Davis fouled out with 2:40 remaining and MSU trailing 63-65. MSU didn't get its next points until the game was out of reach. The situation resembled MSU's loss to Wisconsin on March 2 when Davis was unable to play at the end of the game due to cramps.
"He's obviously our inside presence," junior guard Chris Hill said. "When he went out, that's where we had to have somebody step up and nobody did."
With less than 10 minutes remaining, it seemed like MSU would advance to the second round of the tournament. The Spartans were leading 59-49 and were finding ways to fend off the Wolf Pack's repeated attempts to cut the lead.
But the Spartans would only score four points in the next nine minutes. Nevada took advantage of MSU's offensive ineptitude, snatching a 65-63 lead with less than three minutes remaining on a 3-pointer by guard Kirk Snyder.
After that, the majority of MSU's offensive possessions resulted in either a missed jumper or a turnover.
"I think we ran out of gas to be honest with you," head coach Tom Izzo said. "I think we ran out of gas for the whole season."
MSU finished the season losing three of its last four games. In all three losses, MSU led in the second half but struggled to find a player on its roster to step up and hit big shots when it counted.
"If a guy like Paul gets knocked out of a game, we need someone to step up and pick up the slack," said senior center Jason Andreas, whose career at MSU ended Thursday. "It doesn't matter if it's a guard or someone who hasn't played all year. They still need to step up, and that really didn't happen all year."
Before Davis fouled out, he was hurting the Wolf Pack with his inside presence. He finished with a team-high 16 points.
Snyder, Nevada's best player, led the Wolf Pack with 19 points on 6-for-17 shooting.
At the end of the first half, MSU led 43-34. Neither team shot the ball well early, but the Spartans broke away when they went on a 17-0 run, giving them a 29-13 lead, in a span of three minutes about midway through the half.
The Spartans' scoring outburst was led by junior guard Kelvin Torbert, who had seven points during the run. Two of those points came at the free throw line after a technical foul was called on the Nevada bench.
Nevada stayed within striking distance with back-to-back 3-pointers, ending the Spartans' scoring streak.
MSU played satisfactory defense in the first, holding the Wolf Pack to 37.5 percent shooting. Snyder, an NBA prospect, finished with 11 at halftime, but it took him nearly 15 minutes to hit a shot. He started the game 0-for-5 but made three of his last five shots, including two 3-pointers.
The last time MSU lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament was in 2002, when it fell to N.C. State, 69-58. Izzo is now 5-2 in first round games.
