Seattle - For their NCAA Tournament first round game against Nevada, the Spartans goal was to stop all but one Wolf Pack player. Nevada guard Kirk Snyder was a guy they were just hoping to contain.
The Spartans did a decent job while they were winning, which was 37 minutes of the game. But as soon as the Wolf Pack made its late run - scoring 14 straight points to turn a seven-point deficit into a seven-point advantage - Snyder became the catalyst for Nevada's 72-66 win.
"Towards the end, stuff just started dropping and I just started letting it go," said Snyder, who had the grin of a five year old as he walked off the court.
The Wolf Pack junior has the tools for the NBA - dribbling skills, unmeasurable jump shot range and a powerful driving ability - but the Spartans defensive arsenal frustrated the 6-foot-6 guard most of the night. He threw up 17 shots, and nearly everyone was hoisted with hand in his face.
"As bad as Snyder hurt us, he's 6-of-17," MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. "To hold him to that, that's pretty good. He made some big plays and that's what great players do."
Down the stretch, however, it didn't matter if he was double or triple teamed, Snyder hit his shots.
With Nevada (24-8) trailing 63-60, Snyder drove the lane, and instead of passing the ball out, he let a risky leaner fly. The result was a swish.
With the shot clock running down the next time down the floor, Snyder rose up in the corner and drained a triple that gave Nevada the lead for good.
"All it takes is a couple of shots for any scorer to get going," Snyder said. "And that's what happened for me."
Snyder scored 19 points Thursday night at KeyArena, slightly above his season average of 18.7, but most were highly contested. Still, the gritty junior buckled down in crunch time.
"Some of the shots he took were big time shots," junior swingman Alan Anderson said. "Big time players make big time shots and that's what he did."
To start the game, MSU (18-12) had junior guard and best defensive player Kelvin Torbert on the 2004 Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year. By the final buzzer, the Spartans had use five different players on him.
Torbert, junior guard Chris Hill, sophomore guard Maurice Ager, Anderson and junior guard Tim Bograkos all took turns on Snyder, but in Anderson's words, "We just couldn't stop him."
In the first half, the Wolf Pack superstar had just one point in the first 14 minutes. And that came from splitting a pair of free throws.
Snyder stole an inbound pass with the score knotted at 12, but as he elevated for a one-handed tomahawk dunk with the ball gripped tightly in right hand, Spartan sophomore forward Matt Trannon prevented the crowd-energizing slam.
Trannon's hard foul on Snyder did more than just keep the crowd grounded. It proved to be the ignition to a 17-0 MSU run.
The second half started just like the first. Snyder was throwing up jump shots and scored two points in the first 16 minutes.
But the second half ended just opposite of the first. Nevada, thanks in large part to Snyder's leadership and mere presence on the court, had erased a 16-point lead to win its first ever NCAA Tournament game and Snyder was all smiles at the podium.
