No. 2 Michigan State survives close call with No. 10 New Mexico

Jaden Akins scored a team-high 16 points Sunday night and second-seeded Michigan State controlled the last seven minutes to eliminate 10th-seeded New Mexico 71-63 in the second round of the South Region of the NCAA Tournament in Cleveland. Tre Holloman came off the bench to add 14 points and fellow reserve Frankie Fidler chipped in 10 points for the Spartans (29-6), who advance to the regional semifinals in Atlanta to play No. 6 Ole Miss on Friday. The Rebels were 91-78 winners over third-seeded Iowa State. "I feel like good teams find a way to win and that's what we did," Akins said. "We started ugly but we just tried to stay solid throughout the game." Nelly Junior Joseph scored 16 points for the Lobos (27-8) but was limited to 29 minutes due to foul trouble before fouling out at the 2:12 mark. Mountain West Conference Player of the Year Donovan Dent added 14 points and six assists, while Mustapha Amzil also tallied 14 points. New Mexico canned 48.2 percent of its field-goal attempts, including 15 of 28 in the second half. It outshot Michigan State, which made 44.4 percent from the field, but the Spartans won this one at the foul line. They converted 19 of 28 there, while the Lobos made just 5 of 10. "Michigan State is a terrific team, physical, tough," said New Mexico coach Richard Pitino. "Foul trouble for us was very difficult. They had 19 points to our five from the free-throw line." Dent drove for a layup with 7:39 left to tie the game at 51, but Akins splashed a 3-pointer on Michigan State's next possession to give it the lead for good. Fidler capped a 7-0 run with consecutive buckets for a 58-51 advantage with 6:08 remaining. After winning its first NCAA Tournament game since 2012, New Mexico controlled most of the first half, jumping out to a 10-2 lead at the 15:57 mark behind a 3-pointer from Amzil. The advantage reached 10 with 9:10 remaining when Dent penetrated and hit a short jumper in the lane to make it 24-14. It was still nine on Amzil's second 3-pointer with 4:41 left, and then Michigan State rattled off eight straight points and trailed just 31-29 at intermission. "The first half of that game, that's as good a barrage as we've had hit us," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. "But I thought we got our break going when we got our defense going. We rebounded the ball pretty well." --Field Level Media