Ohio State guard Dale Bonner shoots the winning 3-point basket against Michigan State guard Tyson Walker (2) during the closing seconds of the Buckeyes’ 60-57 win over the Spartans on Sunday.
EAST LANSING –Michigan State’s March just got interesting for all the wrong reasons.
Ohio State made a 3-pointer with 0.2 seconds left to upset Michigan State, 60-57 on Sunday afternoon at the Breslin Center.
After Tyson Walker hit one of two free throws with 6.2 seconds left to tie the game, Ohio State rushed the ball down the floor and the Buckeyes’ Dale Bonner hit a 3 in front of his team’s bench to send the Buckeyes into a frenzy following the program’s first win at Michigan State since 2012.
The victory ended a 17-game losing streak in road games by the Buckeyes which dated back to Jan. 1, 2023.
Michigan State has now lost back-to-back home games to teams in the bottom half of the Big Ten standings after falling to Iowa on Tuesday. The two-game stretch likely pushes the Spartans to the NCAA Tournament bubble – or off of it – heading into a Saturday trip to No. 3 Purdue.
The game quickly went from looking like a comfortable win to looking like a potential disaster.
Michigan State (17-11, 9-8) gave up a 13-2 run midway through the second half to see its lead shrink from 12 points all the way down to one following a three-point play from Ohio State’s Felix Okpara with 6:02 remaining.
The Spartans were still down by one four minutes later, when Walker made a difficult layup to put the Spartans back ahead by three with 1:36 remaining.
Ohio State (16-12, 6-11) recorded a layup on the other end to get back within one, then got the ball back with 30 seconds left following an A.J. Hoggard miss.
OSU’s Roddy Gayle backed Hoggard down and got fouled under the hoop, then hit two free throws with 11.9 seconds left to give the Buckeyes their first lead.
With no timeout left, Michigan State inbounded and drew a foul on Walker with 6.4 seconds left. Walker couldn’t put the Spartans ahead and Ohio State answered on the other end.
Michigan State held the Buckeyes to 24 percent shooting and 22 points in one of its best recent defensive halves. The Buckeyes were playing without second-leading scorer Jamison Battle.
It closed that half with five points from Tyson Walker in the final minute, including a layup high off the glass as time expired to put Michigan State ahead by 10.
But the Spartans collapsed in the second half in front of a Breslin Center that was increasingly quiet as the game went on and Ohio State shot 51 percent after halftime. Michigan State finished the game 2-for-11 from the field and shot 4-for-16 from 3-point range.
Malik Hall had 15 points for Michigan State. Walker had 12 but shot just 5-for-15.
Freshman Xavier Booker made his first career start at center in place of senior Mady Sissoko in a surprising late-season lineup shift for Tom Izzo. Booker had played seven minutes or fewer in each of the Spartans’ last 13 games. He hadn’t played at all in four of those contests.
Booker finished with seven points, three rebounds and three blocks.
