Bridgeport, Conn. — It wasn't supposed to end this way for Liz Shimek and Lindsay Bowen.
The two seniors made a final exit with less than two minutes remaining in the MSU women's basketball team's third-round NCAA Tournament game against Duke on Sunday, their team down by more than 20 points.
All hopes of a return trip to the national title game were completely vanquished.
The Spartans struggled to keep top-seeded Duke from running away with the game early, trailing by just eight points at halftime, 45-37.
Duke opened the second half with an 18-4 spurt, eventually pushed the lead to as much as 29 points, and sent MSU packing with an 86-61 loss.
"We didn't want to go out this way," Bowen said. "It hurts a lot right now."
The Spartans couldn't stop turning the ball over, couldn't defend in the paint, couldn't get back fast enough on defense and couldn't control Duke's guards in the open court.
Duke shot more than 50 percent from the field in each half, while holding MSU to just 23.5 percent shooting in the second half.
The Spartans committed 17 turnovers and only dished out 12 assists.
Perhaps most importantly, the Green and White couldn't get the ball to their best player.
Shimek took only five shots in the game, including just two in the second half, and finished with a season-low five points.
"They're a tall team, big team, very physical inside," Shimek said. "I'm not gonna take anything away from them. They just played very aggressive, and I just wasn't in attack mode.
"It's a whole team effort, and Duke just outplayed us."
Every time Shimek went up for a shot, she was met with strong resistance from Duke's towering, athletic front line of defenders.
She wasn't alone in her struggles, however. Bowen shot just 4-for-16 from the floor, scoring 10 points.
Junior guard Victoria Lucas-Perry and freshman forward Aisha Jefferson provided a bit of a scoring lift for MSU, but it was far from enough to keep the game competitive.
The Blue Devils were so dominant that six players ended the game in double figures, yet only one player was on the floor for more than 30 minutes.
"Our inability to disrupt their shot-making was the most critical element," MSU head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. "To shoot 54 percent for the game — 57 percent in the second half — that's the factor that fatigues you, more than even people do. But I will say that Duke has great depth."
Lucas-Perry scored 17 points to lead MSU, and Jefferson had 15.
Guard/forward Monique Currie paced Duke with 17 points, guard Abby Waner scored 14, and forward Mistie Williams had 13. Lindsey Harding, Alison Bales, and Chante Black each scored 10 points.
MSU ended the season with a 24-10 record.
The game might have marked the last time Shimek and Bowen donned a green and white jersey with "State" stitched across the chest, but McCallie said their impact on the MSU women's basketball program will be long lasting. They'll even leave MSU as the top two scorers in school history.
"They totally built and revitalized women's basketball at Michigan State," McCallie said. "If it's possible for two people to sort of 'shake the world,' these two women have definitely done that in the great state of Michigan."
Ethan Conley can be reached at conleyet@msu.edu.
