The 3rd seeded Michigan State Spartans defeated the 14th seeded Bucknell Bison 82-78 Friday night in the Midwest Regional.
The Spartans jumped out to an early 23-12 lead within the first 10 minutes following a Josh Langford 3-pointer. Langford was red hot in the first half, making 7 of his 8 shots from the field.
The Bison were able to hang around behind star senior Zach Thomas. Thomas was sensational in the first half, scoring 20 points on 6-11 shooting including 5-6 from the free throw line. Thomas and the Bison closed out the first half down only 4, 44-40.
In the second half, the Bison struggled mightily to score, until a late game push.
Miles Bridges was once again huge for Tom Izzo’s squad, scoring 29 points including 1 monstrous putback dunk.
With the win, the Spartans will advance to face 11th seeded Syracuse ono Sunday following the conclusion of the Purdue-Butler game. It will be interesting to see how the Spartans attack the Syracuse zone, as the ‘Cuse has been able to shut down 2 potent offensives in ASU and TCU.