Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
Montrezl Harrell of the Louisville Cardinals.
Christian Post Report – With a place in the Final Four of the NCAA Men’s Division I basketball tournament up for grabs, the Louisville Cardinals play the Michigan State Spartans in the East Region final. Sunday’s game has a start time of 2:20 p.m. ET and can be watched on TV on the CBS network, or online through live stream (details below).
Louisville began the tournament with a close 57-55 victory over UC Irvine. In that contest, the highly favoured Cardinals could not shake off the upset-minded Anteaters as they were challenged in every move.
Wayne Blackshear scored 19 points in the victory, also pulling down seven rebounds as he played the entire game for the Cardinals.
Quentin Snider added 16 as he shot 6-of-11 from the field while sinking two of his three attempts beyond the arc.
Next up for them was a match againt the Northern Iowa Panthers and this time the Cardinals asserted themselves more for a comfortable victory.
Leading 36-27 at the half way point, Louisville continued with the pressure with four of five starters finishing in double digits led by Rozier’s 25 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Montrezl Harrell added 14 while Snider and Blackshear each dropped 10 points.
After the win, Louisville went head-to-head against their ACC rivals NC State. The eighth-seeded team led 33-31 at the half but the Cardinals adjusted and found a way to fight back in the second.
Throttling to a 44-32 second half performance, Louisville won 75-65 as Harrell scored 24, Rozier had another great night with 17 and Anton Gill provided seven points off the bench while shooting perfect from the field.
Meanwhile, Michigan State came into the tournament as the seventh seed and faced Georgia in the second round.
They won 70-63 behind 16 points from Denzel Valentine 15 from Travis Trice and 14 from Branden Dawson and Bryn Forbes.
Next, they were tasked to take on second-seed Virginia in the third round. Despite now tagged as the underdogs, the Spartans responded with a big 60-54 victory, sending Virginia home for the second straight year.
In that win, Trice led again with 23 points as he went 4-of-8 from beyond the arc. Dawson added 15 as the Spartans were excellent beyond the three point line for the night – sinking 50 percent of their shots for three as a team.
After eliminating Virginia, Michigan State met third-seed Oklahoma in the Sweet 16. As expected, the Sooners led at the half 31-27 but the Spartans showed determination as they bounced back in the second round to get the 62-58 win.
Trice and Valentine were the team’s top performers as they combined for 42 of the 62 total points for the team.
Michigan State also limited Oklahoma to 24% shooting from beyond the arc as the Spartans marched on to the Elite Eight.
To get updates and live scores, visit ESPN.com. For live streaming, click here.
Source : Christian Post