March 20, 2006

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ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) - The Spartans withstood a late-game scoring drought by holding Kentucky scoreless for more than five minutes, and beat the Wildcats 67-63 on Monday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Fourth-seeded Michigan State, last season's national runner-up, advances to its second straight Sweet 16 and will play the winner of Tuesday's Duke-Southern California game in Bridgeport, Conn., on Sunday, March 26.

"All the experience that we did have last year and in the Big Ten this year is really paying off," senior Liz Shimek said.

Aisha Jefferson led Michigan State (24-9) with 16 points -- 14 in the first half -- and Shimek scored 12 points on 4-for-13 shooting -- after scoring 27 in the opening round against Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Her basket with 4:20 left gave the Spartans the lead for good, 62-60. Michigan State missed its final three shots and committed three turnovers the rest of the way, but Kentucky could not capitalize.

The fifth-seeded Wildcats (22-9) committed two turnovers and missed six consecutive shots before Carly Ormerod ended the scoring drought with a 3-pointer with 4.4 seconds left to cut Michigan State's lead to 66-63. She finished with a team-high 15 points.

Victoria Lucas-Perry scored 13 for Michigan State, hitting the tying 3-pointer with just over five minutes left and converting 3-of-4 free throws in the final 16 seconds to wrap up the win.

Jenny Pfeiffer scored 12 for Kentucky.

"I thought [we] played a marvelous finish to a very, very good game," Michigan State coach Joanne McCallie said. "The effort was exceptional. And the plays made down the stretch were also exceptional. It was really fun to watch."

One that stood out was when Kentucky's Sarah Elliott got the ball in the post and lowered her shoulder into Shimek for a charge with 37 seconds left.

Eighteen seconds later, Michigan State's Rene Haynes blocked a short jumper by Samantha Mahoney.

"A lot of times I felt like I got fouled, especially on the last one, but there's nothing I can really do about that," Mahoney said after scoring seven points.

But McCallie said, "The credit there goes to Rene Haynes -- a lot -- and Victoria and the guards. They did an exceptional job of trying to play her correctly."

Elliott finished with eight after scoring a season-high 22 in the Wildcats' first-round win over Chattanooga.

"I'm very, very proud of our effort and very disappointed we couldn't close the game," Kentucky coach Mickie DeMoss said. "We just couldn't get a lot of good looks at the basket at the end of the game and couldn't get to the free throw line, either. We really struggled to score the last five minutes of the game."

Unlike Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which hung in for about 30 minutes before losing by 19 in the first round to Michigan State, Kentucky stayed with the Spartans the whole way.

The Wildcats weathered a 12-2 run that gave the Spartans a three-point lead midway through the second half and were ahead 60-57 after Eleia Roddy's putback with 5:25 left.

But Lucas-Perry tied it, Shimek gave Michigan State the lead and the score held at 62-60 until Lucas-Perry hit two free throws with 16 seconds left.

After Ormerod missed a wild runner, Shimek hit two foul shots to make it 66-60 with 7.7 seconds left. But the Wildcats weren't quite out of it.

Ormerod raced upcourt and hit a 3-pointer to make it a three-point game. But Lucas-Perry hit 1-of-2 foul shots for the final score.

Michigan State was 14-of-19 from the line, while Kentucky was 4-for-4.

Ormerod's 3-pointer capped a 9-1 spurt to start the second half that increased Kentucky's lead to 43-34.

And it was 48-41 before Michigan State got going.

The Spartans got four points each from Shimek and Lucas-Perry during a 12-2 run that put them ahead 53-50. Lucas-Perry capped the run with a block on Mahoney's short pull-up jumper and two free throws with 10:36 left.