Michigan State Heads to Final Four After Banding Together to Shock Duke

WASHINGTON — Matt McQuaid floated past Javin DeLaurier, a defender who has five inches on him, and tossed the ball backward and over his head to give his team a two-point lead with a little more than eight minutes left.

Later, Xavier Tillman scored five points on two shots and a free throw, cutting the deficit to one point with just over a minute left.

Next was Kenny Goins, who swished a 3-pointer to create a two-point lead with just 34 seconds left.

But in the end, second-seeded Michigan State’s best player versus top-seeded Duke in Sunday’s regional final was Cassius Winston, the junior point guard. He finished with 20 points and 10 assists, playing every second of the game two days after he sat for only the final minute of the Spartans’ win over third-seeded Louisiana State.

And, yes, it was fitting that Winston held the ball when time expired and Michigan State had toppled the top overall seed, the one with the most dominant freshman in years.

But without heroics from all its players, Michigan State would have been merely forgettable roadkill on Duke’s inexorable path. Instead, it is the Blue Devils going home — and Zion Williamson likely heading to the N.B.A. — while the Spartans seem like favorites as an unpredictable second weekend winnowed the men’s college basketball universe down to just four teams.

“At the end, we made some winning plays,” Winston said afterward. “That’s what it’s all about this time of year.”

Michigan State’s 68-67 victory sent the team to Coach Tom Izzo’s eighth Final Four, in search of its third national title following ones in 1979 and 2000. That latter came under Izzo, while the former was courtesy of point guard Magic Johnson, the legendary Los Angeles Lakers executive who could be seen cheering his alma mater on in the stands on Sunday.

The Spartans (32-6), this year’s Big Ten champion, will face third-seeded Texas Tech (30-6), the Big 12 regular season co-champion, in a national semifinal on Saturday, April 6, in Minneapolis. The winner of that game will play the winner of the other semifinal, between No. 5-seeded Auburn (30-9) and No. 1-seeded Virginia (33-3), in the championship game on April 8.

The win was just Izzo’s second against Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski in his career. He is now 2-11 versus his fellow Hall of Famer.

After surviving its last two games by a combined three points, Duke’s road ended in Capital One Arena, a place where, given the Washington Wizards’ poor record, one of Duke’s likely freshman lottery picks could well play home games next year.

Maybe it will be R.J. Barrett, who finished with 21 points, 6 assists and 6 rebounds, going 3-for-6 from deep. Or perhaps the future Washingtonian will be Cam Reddish, who missed the Louisiana State game with knee tendinitis but looked spry while contributing 8 points and 4 rebounds in 37 minutes.

Of course, should Washington end up with the top pick, then the Wizard will be Williamson, who even in defeat proved to be the best player on the court, leading all players with 24 points (on 19 shots) along with 14 rebounds, 3 blocks and 3 steals.

Barrett and Williamson appeared dazed at the postgame news conference. Duke had only two losses all season aside from the six games that Williamson missed when he sprained his knee after his sneaker blew out in the opening seconds of a game versus North Carolina.

“You look around the locker room, see your teammates, your brothers,” Williamson said. “You think, this group, they’ll probably never play together again.”

It was a game of runs in the first half turned a nail-biter in the second. Duke started slowly, then bolted back with a vengeance, at one point going on a 21-5 run and leading by as many as nine. Michigan State closed the half with 10 unanswered points, and entered halftime up by four.

Duke fought back. Williamson scored Duke’s first ten points of the second half, and gave Duke a four-point lead with fewer than 12 minutes left when he hit his second 3-pointer.

The game slowed from there until Michigan State established that two-point lead with 34 seconds left. Duke recovered the ball after a missed 3-pointer, and Barrett drove and was fouled with about five seconds left.

Barrett missed the first free throw, but made the second — a tactical error, since Duke did not have enough fouls to put Michigan State immediately on the line. Barrett later said he had intended to miss, but it bounced off the iron and fell in.

A deliberate Duke foul led to a second inbound, which Winston caught and dribbled speedily up the court and then back again, in a long arc, away from Duke’s defenders, toward his own joyous teammates, into history.