Tom Izzo furiously lashed out at Miles Bridges for not going to the ball and sent his sophomore forward to the bench.
That woke up Michigan State’s star. And it sent him into another gear.
When Bridges returned, he threw down a thunderous, one-handed, put-back dunk off a Nick Ward miss. He attacked the basket for a layup. He hit a step-back 3-pointer.
The No. 3 seed Spartans advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament with an 82-78 victory over 14-seed Bucknell on Friday night at Little Caesars Arena.
Bridges scored 15 of his 29 points in the final 10-plus minutes after Izzo sat him down. He added nine boards and four assists.
Everyone was needed for MSU in a game that was close early and chippy late. Joshua Langford was hot early and finished with 22 points on 7-for-10 shooting. Cassius Winston had 11 points and 10 assists. The Spartans also received key contributions off the bench from both Xavier Tillman and Ben Carter.
Ward returned after taking a hard fall on his head and neck in the second half. He finished with eight points and five rebounds.
Pulling away
Patriot League champ Bucknell (25-10) kept the game close with MSU after the Spartans built an 11-point lead in the first half.
Zach Thomas drew a foul and made three free throws with 18:32 that put the Bison within 52-46 with 15:30 left.
Then Bridges had his mental lapse with the shot clock winding down, forcing an ill-advised shot that drew Izzo’s ire and a seat with 10:49 left.
After he returned 38 seconds later, though, the 6-foot-7 forward looked like a different player, and the Spartans started to pull away. Bridges scored 10 straight points and the lead swelled to as many as 18.
Thomas led the Bison with 27 points, but the senior fouled out when he drew a technical foul with 6:06 to play. Langford got a technical for MSU a few second later for MSU as the two teams chirped in each other’s ears the final few minutes.
Thomas finished 7 of 14 and made 10 of 11 free throws.
Bucknell did not quit, though, burying 3-pointers later to pull back within five in the closing seconds. The Bison finished 11 of 20 from deep, including a late one at the buzzer by Stephen Brown as part of his 20 points.
MSU finished shooting 53.4 percent and had 21 assists on 31 baskets.
Hot and cold
The Spartans opened the game as if their nearly two-week layoff did not exist. Langford and Ward combined for 10 of their first 14 points. And Langford’s 3-pointer at the midpoint of the opening half gave MSU its biggest lead, 23-12.
But Bucknell scrapped its way back, riding its star’s hot hand. Thomas answered the MSU run with seven straight points of his own, including a banked-in 3-pointer from deep. That was part of a 16-4 Bison burst in which Thomas gave them their first lead with another deep 3-pointer with 5:24 left before halftime.
The Spartans answered with another 9-2 run, with Winston scoring seven of them. But Bucknell countered again, pulling back with in a point on two Stephen Brown free throws with 50.5 seconds left before the break.
Out of a timeout, MSU posted up Bridges, who drew Thomas’ second foul and converted a three-point play to put the Spartans back up 44-40 with 42.5 ticks left.
But MSU’s sophomore star had a mental lapse with a chance to extend the halftime lead when he did not realize there was a 2-second differential between the shot clock and game clock. His 3-point make was waved off and the play ruled a shot-clock violation.
Langford scored 15 points, Bridges 10 and Winston nine for the Spartans, who shot 59.4 percent in the first 20 minutes.
However, MSU could not contain Thomas, who had 20 points on 6 of 11 shooting at halftime. He made all three of his 3-point attempts as the Bison went 5 of 7 from deep and shot 48.1 percent in the period despite going 1 for 6 to open the game.
What’s next
The Spartans (30-4) advance to Sunday’s second round at Little Caesars Arena. They will face the winner of Friday night’s late game between 6-seed TCU and 11-seed Syracuse. Game time and TV broadcast info will be determined after the late games.
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