Michigan State basketball outlasts Kentucky in 2OT, 86-77

INDIANAPOLIS – Another top five opponent brought to the wire.

This time, Michigan State Basketball took No. 4 Kentucky to overtime. And then another. Striking back every time Oscar Tshiebwe and the Wildcats seemed ready to finish it off. The kind of high drama the Spartans are getting used to after three games into the season.

Tyson Walker and Mady Sissoko made sure Friday’s history didn’t repeat itself. The duo connected on a pair of alley-oop dunks in the second overtime as MSU used an 11-0 takeover run to give Tom Izzo’s team an 86-77 victory over Kentucky in Tuesday night’s Champions Classic at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

“It was a big program win, not an individual win,” said Izzo, who improved to 5-7 in the Champions Classic and 3-1 against the Wildcats in the event.

Tshiebwe, the reigning national player of the year, made his season debut for Kentucky.

But Joey Hauser shrugged off a brutal game against Gonzaga and an ugly missed shot on his first try against Kentucky to finish with 23 points and eight rebounds. He hit a pair of critical midrange jumpers in the final 2:37 of regulation, including one on a set play with 1:04 to play, then grabbed a defensive rebound on a miss from Tshiebwe.

Malik Hall’s dunk with 3.7 seconds left on an AJ Hoggard pass sent the game into overtime. And Hall did it again to send it to a second OT, flushing one with 1.4 seconds left in the first overtime. Hall finished with 20 points and five rebounds.

But it was Walker and Sissoko who shined late, taking a combined 16 points between the two overtimes. Walker scored 14, while Sissoko put in another strong performance against an All-American with 16 points and eight rebounds – and made no mistake.

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Sahvir Wheeler scored 16 points with eight assists for Kentucky. Cason Wallace added 14 and Jacob Toppin scored 10.

The Spartans had 18 turnovers, but none in the two overtime periods. The Wildcats’ reserves outscored MSU’s 45-9, but the Spartans had a 45-38 rebound advantage.

MSU (2-1) hosts Villanova on Friday (8 p.m./FS1) as part of the Gavitt Tipoff Games between the Big Ten and Big East conferences.

Slow start

After a slow start from both teams, missing their first 12 three-point attempts combined, Kentucky went up by seven on some quick layups from Wheeler and a tip from forward Lance Ware.

But after a pair of Jaden Akins free throws, the Spartans found their deep blow, with Walker and Hauser hitting back-to-back 3-pointers to force Wildcats coach John Calipari to call a timeout to end MSU’s 8-0 run. stop giving it a 21-20 lead with 7:12 left in the first half.

Hauser, who went 0-for-5 and fouled Friday in the Spartans’ 64-63 loss to No. 2 Gonzaga, hit another 3-pointer with 5 minutes left before halftime and another with 2:24 left after Kentucky returned its lead to four on a Tshiebwe dunk.

That set off a frantic 30 second streak with just over a minute left to play before half time, with Hoggard picking up the pace and hitting Hall for a transition dunk, followed by another Wheeler speeddrive layup and Hoggard quickly getting out again and found Sissoko. for a layout. Hall sent the Spartans into halftime leading 36-34 with a 3-pointer from the right wing with 27.5 taps left, and they made 5 of 7 from deep to end the half after losing their first six tries had missed.

Hall had 10 points and Hauser nine at the half, MSU held Kentucky 2 for 10 from deep and 42.4 from the field, and the Spartans outsprinted the bigger, longer, deeper Wildcats 18–16 in the first 20 minutes. Tshiebwe, who made his season debut after missing the first two games with a knee injury, had 11 points and seven rebounds at halftime and was a key reason Kentucky outscored MSU’s reserves 23–6 in the first half.

Battle of the big man

Things went back and forth in the second half, with the Spartans extending their lead to five points with a Hall jumper and a free throw from Sissoko. But the MSU center got his second foul in the first minute and got his third with 17:58 left, his second on an illegal display, and took his seat for the next 9:39.

That left freshmen Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper to try and handle the 6-foot-9, 260-pound Tshiebwe in the paint. They managed to contain him for the most part, though Cooper picked up a foul and Tshiebwe converted a three-point play after what appeared to start with an elbow to Cooper’s face by the Kentucky star. Referees assessed and said there was no head contact.

36 seconds later, Tshiebwe got the ball back into the post and elbowed Hall in the face. That led to a whistle and his third foul. Tshiebwe went to the bank.

This allowed Izzo to get Sissoko back in, and he immediately followed a Walker miss with a dunk and hit a pair of 1-on-1 free throws to give MSU a 51-50 lead with 7:35 left to play.

Tshiebwe returned and threw down a dunk to put Kentucky back in front, then stopped Hall on a baseline drive. That caused a break for the Wildcats, and CJ Fredrick downed a 3-pointer that forced Izzo to call a timeout, MSU lost 56-52 with 5:21 to play.

Hauser drained a deep jumper to narrow the deficit 56-54. But with 3:53 left, Tshiebwe pulled Sissoko’s fourth foul on a post-up on the right block. And with 2:16 left, Tshiebwe bounced back a missed free throw—as if appearing to ground Sissoko—to put Kentucky up to third again.

But Hauser buried an elbow jumper with 1:04 left and grabbed a critical rebound on a Tshiebwe miss with just over 40 seconds left. Walker missed a jumper and Kentucky’s Wallace skipped 1 of 2 free throws with 15.4 to make it a two-point game. After Hoggard was blocked by Tshiebwe, the center lost to Kentucky Hall on the inbound play, who cut to the basket and took Hoggard’s pass for an uncontested dunk to force the first overtime.

Working overtime

MSU looked up early in overtime as the Wildcats scored their first five points. But Hauser hit a pair of free throws, and Walker cleared a three-pointer with 2:28 left in overtime and then another elbow jumper with 59 seconds left after Wheeler gave Kentucky a three-point lead with a free throw and lay- up .

Then Walker ran into a Tshiebwe screen to draw the big man’s fifth foul and send him to the bench for good. MSU called a timeout with 7.6 seconds left after Wallace’s lone free throw made it 71-69. Izzo had Walker get the ball out, send it behind the backline to Hoggard, then run. He caught the pass and set up Hall, who yoked onto the left wing and drove for another dunk to force a second OT that the Spartans would pull away with a 15-6 burst in the second overtime.

Michigan State basketball outlasts Kentucky in 2OT, 86-77

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