Analysis | U of L falls 76-70 to Michigan State

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- One game away from a third Final Four appearance in four seasons, the University of Louisville basketball team ran out of gas in overtime of the East region final against Michigan State on Sunday.

The teams played a riveting 45 minutes of basketball, but Michigan State outlasted Louisville 76-70 in overtime to secure its spot in next weekend's Final Four in Indianapolis.

"Any time you lose in overtime, it's a heartbreaker," U of L coach Rick Pitino said. "It's very difficult for all the players, but real proud of our guys."

U of L (27-9) played an efficient first half and zoomed to an eight-point lead at the break, but the scoring problems that popped up so much this season -- and had seemingly gone away in the NCAA tournament -- showed up in the worst possible place.

The Cardinals had a crippling second-half drought that let Michigan State (27-11) fight back from its deficit and eventually take a six-point lead. They made six shots in the game's final 25 minutes, and three of them came on fast-break layups after steals by Terry Rozier.

GAME REWIND |Michigan State ends U of L's season

But Louisville kept it interesting thanks in large part to Wayne Blackshear's monster game. The senior wing scored 28 points and made all 12 of his free throws, but he didn't get much help. In fact, his layup with 3:38 to play and 3-pointer with 1:48 left erased what had been a 16-plus-minute scoring drought in Louisville's halfcourt offense.

Pitino added to the story behind Blackshear's performance with this: The Chicago native overdid his asthma inhaler use at halftime and threw up. That was in addition to the elbow he took to the nose in the second half that bloodied his white jersey.

"Wayne was throwing up at halftime like no player I've ever seen," Pitino said. "He still came back and fought it pretty hard. Nose bleeds, throwing up ..."

In the locker room, Blackshear rested his elbows on his knees and spoke softer than he normally does. He did not do enough, he said, to help his team win, a sentiment with which none of his teammates agreed. The blood on his uniform made his statement a hard sell.

But, he said, he hopes "to be remembered as one of the guys who gave it their all when they stepped on the court."

Across the room, Rozier leaned in to the reporter next to him.

"How many did he have?" Rozier said, asking about Blackshear.

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Told it was 28 points, the 6-foot-1 sophomore shook his head.

"That was amazing, man," Rozier said. "He just played his heart out. He played like he didn't want to go home. And if we all would have matched his intensity, we definitely would have been headed to the Final Four."

Pitino and his players credited Michigan State time and again after Sunday's game, saying the Spartans made the necessary adjustments at halftime to rally, and then made the necessary shots in overtime to win.

The Spartans had 12 turnovers and their two stars, Travis Trice and Denzel Valentine, made just 4 of 15 from 3-point range. But they cobbled together 26 bench points, including 14 from junior Bryn Forbes, and they made 15 of 20 from the foul line.

In a season when Michigan State shot a miserable 62.8 percent from line, Sunday's 75 percent made a big difference.

"I'd like to tell you I thought five different times this year we were good enough to get to a Final Four, but I'd be lying to you," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.

"I wasn't really planning on working this late, but, God, I love to work at this time of year. I just love to work at this time of year."

For as poorly as Louisville played for so much of the second half, the Cardinals had a chance to go ahead with 4.9 seconds left. Pitino drew up a play to get either Rozier or Blackshear moving to the basket and free up forward Montrezl Harrell for an offensive rebound. When Rozier's layup bounced off the rim, it was redshirt sophomore Mangok Mathiang who snapped up the rebound and got fouled as he tried a putback.

His first free throw hit the back of the rim, shot straight up in the air and then, with gravity as its savior, dropped straight down and in.

"I was positive we were going to win it when the first free throw went in -- because it shouldn't have gone in," Pitino said.

But the second one rimmed out, and Trice missed a halfcourt prayer.

"I tried to calm myself down again," Mathiang said. "It kind of looked good at first, and then it kind of faded off to the left a little bit ... It still gave us another chance for overtime."

That's when this Louisville team and its unexpected March run sputtered to a stop. The Cards came that close to the Final Four, but for the second season in a row, they sat quietly in their locker room, disappointed in defeat.

"It just sucks that this is the end of the year," Harrell said. "We all had one goal, one destiny and one dream, and we fell short."

Reach U of L beat writer Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter (@jeffgreer_cj).