After spending the first five minutes of the game on the bench with a stomach virus, preseason All-American Drew Neitzel’s last-ditch effort to lead No. 11 MSU to an upset victory over No. 1 UCLA fell short Tuesday night.
The Bruins, who didn’t hold a lead until 28 seconds remaining in the game, defeated the Spartans 68-63 in the championship game of the CBE Classic in Kansas City.
MSU was making a case for the program’s third win over a No. 1 ranked team.
Neitzel, who averaged almost a full game’s worth of minutes last year, had limited playing time and showed signs of fatigue in the second half. He finished with 13 points and had the ball in his hands for the final MSU shots.
With 11 seconds remaining, Neitzel launched a three-pointer, but it air-balled wide left of the basket.
Freshman guard Durrell Summers also finished with 11 points and five rebounds for the Green and White. UCLA’s freshman center Kevin Love had 21 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Bruins. UCLA (5-1) had 18 offensive rebounds, compared to the seven for MSU (3-1).
The Spartans jumped out to an 8-0 run and held the lead until the final minute.
By the time the Bruins scored their first basket at 14:21 in the
first half, three Spartans had already scored. By the end of the first half, seven MSU players had scored, including freshmen Chris Allen, Kalin Lucas and Summers.
MSU, which led by double digits in the first half and early on in the second, found the score tied 58-58 when sophomore guard Russell Westbrook stole the ball from junior MSU guard Travis Walton and finished an uncontested slam dunk.
MSU junior forward Marquise Gray then broke the deadlock with a dunk of his own on a feed from sophomore forward Raymar Morgan at 3:09.
Then, tied 63-63 with less than two minutes remaining, Neitzel called his own number out of a timeout and missed a three-pointer as the shot clock expired. UCLA then picked up its first lead of the night with a three-pointer from Luc Richard Mbah a Moute with 28 seconds remaining, to go up 66-63.
Neitzel’s last shot missed the mark with 11.9 seconds left in the game and the Spartans were forced to foul.
Without preseason All-American guard of their own in Darren Collison, UCLA was forced to go inside to Love. In response, MSU rotated big men in the post and picked up 28 fouls. Drew Naymick and Idong Ibok both fouled out in the second half, leaving Goran Suton and Gray to cover Love for the final minutes of the game.
Sophomore guard Raymar Morgan’s second half was also marred by
personal fouls, as he picked up his fourth with 9:23 to go, and saw little playing time in the second 20 minutes. He finished with 10 points.
The Spartans face Oakland University on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Breslin Center.
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