Final touches

AUSTIN, Texas -- It was a hard-fought win that was as much for Flint, Mich., as it was for East Lansing.

If you cupped your ears and tried to drown out the din of the sellout crowd of 16,239 at The Erwin Center, you could almost hear the unmistakable sledgehammer's clang of the Michigan State Spartans forging yet another trip to the Final Four -- their fourth in the last seven years -- with a workmanlike effort, putting in overtime not once but twice to get the job done.

Kelvin Torbert, a 6-foot-5-inch senior guard who is one of five Michigan State players who call Flint their hardscrabble home, corralled Rajon Rondo's missed layup for Michigan State's 40th and final rebound with four-10ths of a second left. He drew a foul from Ravi Moss, and went to the line for a pair of free throws that emphatically punctuated the fifth-seeded Spartans' 94-88 victory in double overtime over second-seeded Kentucky in the final of the NCAA Tournament's Austin Regional.

In the end, Michigan State's blue-collar mentality won out over Kentucky's Big Blue tradition.

"I think we won because we fought hard," said Torbert, whose heart and desire was not reflected in his numbers (7 points, 2 rebounds), which came nowhere near to matching those of Shannon Brown (24 points on 8-for-10 shooting), voted the regional's most outstanding player, and Maurice Ager (21 points, 8 rebounds). "We were able to get the bounces and make the scrappy plays."

The Spartans (26-6), who defeated top-seeded Duke, 78-68, in Friday night's semifinal and Kentucky yesterday to earn a Final Four berth in St. Louis opposite Syracuse Regional winner North Carolina, overcame a controversial buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Patrick Sparks that enabled the Wildcats, who three times trailed by 8 points (66-58, 68-60, and 70-62) in the final 7:48, to tie it at 75 at the end of regulation.

Sparks, who had missed the front end of a one-and-one with 27 seconds remaining in regulation, atoned when it mattered most in crunch time. After Sparks hoisted a key-top trey, Kelenna Azubuike came up with the rebound underneath and darted out to the right corner, where he spun and took a 3-pointer that hit the front of the rim and bounced back out to Sparks at the top of the key.

The 6-foot junior guard collected the loose ball and took a step toward the 3-point stripe, where Torbert rushed up to contest the shot. The size-11 sneaker on Sparks's right foot seemed to touch the line when he let fly a trey that hit the front of the rim, the back, and then shot up over the basket. It hung there for what seemed like an eternity before dropping through as the final buzzer sounded.

Sparks spun around and ran to CBS's broadcasting spot on press row, where he engaged analyst Billy Packer in some animated banter and blasted him a high-five. "I was just caught up in the emotion," Sparks said. "I didn't really know where my foot was, I knew it was pretty close, but I knew it was behind there."

Said Torbert, "I couldn't tell where his foot was. I was just trying not to draw any contact."

Jim Burr, the lead official, huddled with referees Mark Whitehead and John Higgins at the scorer's table and reviewed the play from every angle cameras could provide, checking for about 7 1/2 minutes before he rose from bended knee and signaled that it was, indeed, a 3-pointer.

"I don't know how many angles [CBS] had," Burr told a pool reporter. "But [the director] showed me every single angle he possibly could, and I still really couldn't find anything that would overrule my original decision."

But Michigan State coach Tom Izzo had a sneaking suspicion the call would go Kentucky's way as he huddled his team and told them, "Let's get ready to play another five minutes."

When CBS magnified a frame of Sparks's foot, Burr saw all he needed to see. "When they finally blew it up," he said, "in my humble opinion, it showed that the kid was behind the line when he took the shot and that is how I made my decision. It was never a question of time. It was definitely off in time and the clock was never a factor."

But, as Burr went through his deliberations, time seemed to stand still for the Wildcats.

"I was scared," said Kentucky senior forward Chuck Hayes, who had 16 points to complement the team-high 20 points by freshman center Randolph Morris. "I was praying and hoping from the angle they were seeing it from that it was a clear-cut 3-pointer. You just didn't want it to end like that. I just knew they called it a 3, then we would pull it out in overtime."

The Wildcats got their reprieve, but failed to capitalize in the first OT when Azubuike (9 points) tried to create with some dribble penetration but was unable to squeeze off a shot when the buzzer sounded with the score knotted at 81. In the second OT, Michigan State took control when Paul Davis (15 points, 11 rebounds) threw down a resounding follow dunk for an 86-81 lead and Torbert followed with a pair of foul shots for an 88-82 lead that kept the Wildcats at bay and sent the Spartans to St. Louis.

"It wasn't just for the people of Flint, but it was for every Spartan everywhere, the fans and the alumni," Torbert said. "This was all about hard work, playing hard, and playing tough. And that's what we've been all about all year."