St. Louis - After a spectacular run that landed them in the Final Four, the No. 5 seed Spartans were brought crashing back to earth by No. 1 seed North Carolina, 87-71, Saturday night at the Edward Jones Dome.
The Tar Heels did what MSU successfully was able to do to all its tournament opponents - wear them down in the second half. North Carolina outscored the Spartans, 54-33, in the half with MSU's leading scorer, senior swingman Alan Anderson, on the bench with a knee injury.
"Offensively, we just weren't in sync with Alan out of there," MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. "You could really tell. We tried to go small, and that didn't work too well."
The first half went back and forth with each team taking turns with the lead, but after a second consecutive 3-pointer shot by sophomore guard Shannon Brown, MSU found itself ahead by eight with just less than three minutes to play in the half.
The Spartans eventually found themselves up by five at the half, despite 12 points from North Carolina forward Jawad Williams. He finished the game with 20 points.
"He carried us in the first half," North Carolina center Sean May said of Williams. "He was the old Jawad Williams."
With the five-point lead under its belt, a lead MSU did not have in previous games, the Spartans fell apart in the second half when the Tar Heels took over the game.
Within the first three-and-a-half minutes of the second half, North Carolina turned the five-point deficit into a four-point advantage and continued to add to its lead, going up by 15 points at the midway point of the half.
"They just came out and wanted it more," MSU senior guard Kelvin Torbert said. "To lose the way we did, it was just a lack of effort. This is the worst half of basketball we played all year. We just can't take it back."
The Spartans tried to fight back but could only get within 11 points as North Carolina was able to tighten its grip on the game and end MSU's season in disappointing fashion.
May scored 18 points in the second half to pace North Carolina, and MSU began to wear down inside with Anderson playing limited minutes.
"That's the kind of player he is," MSU junior center Paul Davis said of May. "He's the guy that you have to shut down for 40 minutes, not just 20."
Another player MSU could not stop in the second half was North Carolina guard Raymond Felton, who, despite scoring only two points in the first half, keyed the Tar Heels with 14 in the second.
To his credit, Davis finished the game with 14 points and another career-high in rebounds with 15. Ager tied his career-high 24 points and Brown capped a strong tournament with 15 points.
"Paul had to play a ton of minutes because of Alan being out," Izzo said. "I thought he did an incredible job of rebounding and trying to hang in there."
It was slim pickings for MSU, however, as it hit only 25-of-74 shots, a season-low 33.8 percent shooting percentage, smashing the previous low of 41.4 percent in the Big Ten Tournament against Iowa.
"They finished their plays and found a way to get it in," Torbert said. "We had a lot of shots to get easy baskets, but we missed dunks and layups and things like that really hurt."
Despite the loss, MSU is determined to use the tournament as a learning experience for next year.
"You want to come here to try and win the national championship every year," Brown said. "We have to build on this, for the people that are coming here and the people that are coming back. We just have to come out and do it."
