A lot was on the line heading into Sunday afternoon’s Big Ten tilt between #5 Michigan State and #10 Ohio State. Not only were both teams playing for a chance of winning a Big Ten Conference regular season crown, but the Spartans were one of the few teams still in the running for a much coveted #1 seed for March Madness.
With such an important game being played at Michigan State’s Breslin Center, along with NCAA POY candidate Draymond Green playing in his last home game as a Spartan, many felt that State was a prohibitive favorite going into the game.
It appeared that the outcome was headed that way after the Spartans went on a 12-0 early run to take a 19-7 lead and was ahead by a score of 24-9 midway through the first half before fabulous freshman Branden Dawson, Michigan State’s 3rd leading scorer, went down with what appeared to be a serious knee injury.
Ohio State took full advantage behind Jared Sullinger’s 14 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 assists, DeShaun Thomas’ 12 points, Aaron Craft’s 9 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 steals, but relied heavily on senior William Buford who scored 19 of his 25 points in the 2nd half, including the game winning shot with under 1 second remaining.
In his final home game, MSU’s Green tallied 19 points and 13 rebounds, while Brandon Wood added 15, in addition to Derrick Nix and Keith Appling adding 11 points a piece. In other action, the Michigan Wolverines bested Penn State 71-65 earlier in the day and were pulling for a Buckeye win to forge a 3 way tie atop the Big Ten standings, giving Ohio State, Michigan State, and Michigan each a share of the conference title.
Check out William Buford’s Game Winner:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
