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Michigan State's Jase Richardson shoots.
College Football

Michigan State pushes past Ole Miss, rolls into first Elite Eight since 2019

Paul Harvey

By Paul Harvey

Published:

Michigan State and Ole Miss met on Friday night in a Sweet 16 matchup, and that one came down to the final stretch of action in Atlanta.

It was a true old-school defensive battle between Chris Beard and Tom Izzo, reminiscent of their 2019 Final Four matchup while Beard was still the head coach at Texas Tech. It opened with a dominant defensive performance by Ole Miss in the first half as the Rebels tried to run away with things.

Michigan State had 7 early turnovers and Ole Miss capitalized with 9 first-half points off turnovers and held the Spartans to an ugly shooting start with a 29-19 lead at one point. However, Izzo’s group responded with some hot shooting to close the half to make the score 33-31 in favor of Ole Miss at the break.

Sean Pedulla was the leading scorer for Ole Miss in the first half with 8 points in just 9 minutes played, sitting for much of the half with 2 early fouls. Pedulla was 1 of 5 Rebels with at least 5 points scored in the first half.

On the other side, it was Jase Richardson doing a lot of the heavy lifting for the Spartans offensively with 10 first-half points and a trio of 3-pointers. Coen Carr added 9 points before the break.

The second half opened with similar scoring for Ole Miss and more shooting woes for Michigan State. However, the Spartans were able to get to the foul line and keep the Rebels in foul trouble, opting to hit the paint in favor of shooting 3-pointers. (MSU attempted just 5 3-point field goals after halftime.)

Pedulla continued to keep Ole Miss afloat offensively for much of the second half with 16 points and some clutch 3-pointers in the period. However, the rest of the offense cooled considerably while shooting 39.4% from the field as a team after halftime.

For the Spartans, the story of the game was Richardson all evening long. He added 10 more points after the break and was able to get clutch buckets at crucial moments.

One of the game-changing plays came with a little over 4 minutes left to play, though the game was tight until the final whistle. Clinging to a one-point lead, Ole Miss got a stop and tried to come back up the court, but the play was broken up by Jeremy Fears Jr. It led to a high-flying fastbreak dunk and a lead for Michigan State:

The finisher in this one for the Spartans proved to be Jaden Akins. His bucket with just over 1:20 left in the game gave MSU the lead for good, and Akins would also add a pair of clean free throws in the final seconds. Michigan State would finish off the 73-70 win to advance.

Ole Miss was able to grab 8 steals and deliver 13 points of turnovers in the game, but it was not enough in this one. Michigan State rode the free-throw line down the stretch, shooting 19-for-22 from the line while Ole Miss finished with half the attempts at a 9-for-10 mark.

Pedulla goes down with the game-high scoring mark for 24 points, but Ole Miss as a team finished 40.6% from the floor. On the flip side, Richardson led the Spartans with 20 points as MSU shot 50% from the floor and 56% after halftime in the win.

With the win, the Spartans will advance to face the winner of Auburn vs. Michigan in the Elite Eight with a shot to advance to another Final Four under Tom Izzo.

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.