Admission: Two Ten-Spots

By SCOTT HOWARD-COOPER

March 26, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. —

They had a home-court advantage, all right. A game right where they wanted it. Spartan turf.

Location, nothing. It was all about timing, down the stretch, to be exact, with the season and a trip to the Final Four on the line and the emotions flowing like cars off the assembly line, and there was Michigan State, in its element. In command, as always.

Looking every bit the gritty, collected, experienced team that won the Big Ten (also known as the Big Dance Preseason Tournament) and climbed to No. 2 in the nation and No. 1 in the bracket, the Spartans used another clutch showing down the stretch to beat Iowa State, 75-64, Saturday night at the Palace of Auburn Hills to win the Midwest Regional. The House wins again.

A second consecutive dominating performance down the stretch meant a second consecutive berth in the Final Four, this time to play conference rival Wisconsin next Saturday in Indianapolis. With a ninth consecutive win, and 19th in 22 games since Mateen Cleaves returned from his foot injury, comes an even better reputation.

“These guys,” Coach Tom Izzo said, “I think now you know why we use the word ‘special’ with them. They reached down deep.”

Deeper in many ways than two days earlier against Syracuse, when the deficit was 10 points at halftime and 14 with 19 minutes remaining, before the 49-18 charge accounted for an easy victory. This was against Iowa State, coming off an impressive victory over UCLA and the region’s second-seeded team. This was seven points down with 5 1/2 minutes remaining, a manageable number under most circumstances, except that this was not most circumstances.

Cleaves and Andre Hutson had four fouls and another starter, Charlie Bell, would get his fourth in about two minutes. Iowa State had scored on five of six possessions and Izzo had just been given a technical. Kantrail Horton made both free throws off that for a 59-52 lead.

The most accurate three-point team in the Big Ten went to work. A.J. Granger hit from the top of the arc. The next possession, Morris Peterson hit from behind the line on the left side. The deficit was only 61-58.

“I did get a tad bit nervous,” Cleaves said. “But when Morris and A.J. came down and hit those shots back-to-back, it was, ‘We’ll be all right.’ ”

They usually are. Cleaves missed a pull-up jumper, but the Spartans scored on their next seven possessions, making it nine out of 10 in all,

Bell connected on two free throws to make it 61-60. He hit from the right side to deliver the first lead in 12 minutes.

Moments later, Cleaves had the ball. Peterson was on the right flat, and then he wasn’t. He went backdoor on Jamaal Tinsley, elevated, and kept elevating until he was in need of clearance from air traffic control. Cleaves delivered the ball. Peterson threw it down.

“We wanted a make-sure basket, and that was about as make-sure as you can get,” Granger said. “I just did my usual thing and turned around and opened my mouth, watched him fly through the air and got a good look of his face inside the basket.”

Michigan State was up, 64-61, with 2:02 left. The cushion grew to 67-61 before Michael Nurse’s three-pointer with 44 seconds kept the Cyclones alive. At least until they could put an unfortunate ending to a wildly successful season, one in which they were picked by some to finish ninth in the Big 12 Conference but instead finished 32-5 and went further than any Iowa State team had gone since the eight-team field in the 1944 tournament.

Peterson’s two free throws put Michigan State up by five with 32 seconds remaining. The Cyclones were still within striking distance, but when they missed a pair of three-pointers the next possession, they were in trouble. When Coach Larry Eustachy exploded--presumably because of a foul called on Nurse on the rebound, though he wouldn’t say--they were chagrined.

Eustachy, the Southern California product, went nose to nose with an official and got a technical. Not stopping there, he went on the court, near halfcourt, to scream some more, getting a second technical and an ejection with 9.9 seconds left. He shook hands with Izzo and Cleaves on the way off the court.

It gave the Spartans (30-7) six free throws--two for the foul and four for the technicals. They made all six, worth the final 75-64 margin.

“It’s just disappointing it had to end that way,” Eustachy said. “I apologized to the team for that. We went down fighting, same as the coach. I’m not going to apologize for any of our actions.”

Said Bell: “I think they really lost it at the end. I think they knew they had no chance to win.”

It finished as a 20-3 charge for Michigan State after the 61-55 deficit. It finished the only way the Spartans seem to know how.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

MARCH MADNESS

TODAY

All Games on Channel 2

SOUTH FINAL

NORTH CAROLINA (21-13)

vs. TULSA (32-4)

11:30 a.m.

EAST FINAL

OKLAHOMA STATE (27-6)