WORCESTER, Mass.-It’s their last hurrah, and they’ve made it a big one!
Alan Anderson, Kelvin Torbert, Chris Hill and Tim Bograkos, this hard working, long suffering group of Michigan State University seniors left their indelible mark in Spartan basketball annals here March 20, battling their way into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA men’s tournament for the sixth time in eight seasons. And they did it the way most of the nation’s sports pundits and analysts said they couldn’t – making plays and hitting free throws down the stretch in close contests.

Coach Tom Izzo’s crew, seeded five in the Austin regional, neatly disposed of 12th seeded Old Dominion, 89-81, in Friday’s opening round to avoid what many were calling this year’s most likely upset, then smothered upstart Vermont, 72-61.

The Spartans put on their running shoes and turned the two contests into track meets, tallying 36 fast break points while allowing just six for the weekend. Torbert was the man early against Old Dominion. The former Flint Northwestern All-American, slammed home a pair of powerful dunks to lead MSU on an 8-0 run early in the first half to erase a 10-5 Monarch lead.

State then watched its lead slip away and trailed 42-37 at halftime.

It looked like MSU would cruise in the second half when Hill stole the ball and went in for a lay-up to cap a 12-2 run to take a one point lead, and a Shannon Brown triple and Matt Trannon dunk pushed the margin to four midway through the second half.

But Old Do minion fought back and led 64-62 with 8:21 remaining.
That’s when the Spartan’s toughness showed.

Freshman, Drew Neitzel, tied the game with a pair of clutch free throws, and a Torbert fast break lay-up regained the lead for good.

The Monarchs didn’t fade away. Three times they cut the lead to one points in the final minutes, but each time the Spartans answered.

Shannon Brown took a laser-like bounce pass from Hill on a break and was fouled nailing a twisting lay-up. He canned the free throw for an old fashioned three pointer. Anderson followed with a slam on a break seconds later and the Spartans closed by canning 6 of 6 free throws in the final 60 seconds to win. Anderson led Spartan scorers with 15 points, followed by Paul Davis with 14. Torbert, Brown and Maurice Ager each had 13.

Vermont entered the second round contest fresh off a stunning upset of 4th seeded Syracuse and bolstered by a New England based “home crowd,” that included a host of Connecticut fans joined by neutrals hoping for another Cinderella upset. MSU smashed the Catamount’s glass slipper as Ager led four Spartans in double figures scoring with 19 points. Torbert followed with 14, and Davis and Anderson each added 11.

Using suffocating pressure defense, MSU limited Vermont to 31.4 shooting from the field and held its All-Conference center, Taylor Coppenrath, in check. Coppenrath, the nation’s number two scorer with a 25.7 ppg. Average, scored a quite 16 points on 5-23 shooting. Team leader, guard T.J. Sorrentine had 26 points, but Germain Mopa Njila, who scored 20 against Syracuse, was scoreless.