PHOENIX — Louisville figured its game against Michigan State to be low-scoring, a natural expectation with two of the nation’s best defenses butting heads.
The Cardinals had one big advantage: Gorgui Dieng.
Dominating inside, Dieng blocked seven shots and altered several others to anchor a stifling defense that helped Louisville knock off topseeded Michigan State 57-44 Thursday night in the NCAA Tournament West Regional semifinals.
“He was very disruptive,” Michigan State’s Draymond Green said. “We’re not going to back down from anyone. We took it at him. He pulled off some great blocked shots. That’s what he does. That’s his strength.”
The Cardinals (29-9) relied on three-point shooting in the first half and moved inside in the second to confuse the Spartans.
Their defense gave Michigan State fits all night.
Instead of trapping like it normally does, Louisville played a bait-and-switch game with the Spartans and Green, their multitalented forward. The idea was to jump out on screens and to make the Spartans work on every possession and, hopefully, wear them out.
It worked, in large part because Dieng was in the back to clean things up.
When the center from Senegal got in foul trouble, Louisville labored, so one of the key parts of Coach Rick Pitino’s game plan was to make sure the Cardinals protected him.
They did and he protected the rim in return, getting five of his blocked shots in the second half to prevent Michigan State from mounting any kind of rally. The Cardinals move on to the West final against Florida on Saturday.
“When we came here, we know [what] we’re going to face,” said Dieng, who also had 5 points, 9 rebounds and 3 steals while matching the school record for blocked shots in an NCAA tournament game. “We knew we were going to come to a war. We need to be tougher than them to win this game.”
Michigan State (29-8) started slow and never got going against Louisville’s defense.
The Spartans got shots they wanted and usually make, but couldn’t get many to fall against Dieng or anyone else, shooting 28 percent while being outscored 20-14 inside by the Cardinals.
Green had 13 points and 16 rebounds in his final game for Michigan State. Brandon Wood added 14 points for the Spartans, who were outscored 17-4 off the bench.
“They disrupted us a little bit and we didn’t have enough guys who could play well,” Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo said.
Pitino has used his speedthe-opponent-up system to reach the Final Four five times, becoming the first coach to lead three different schools to the national semifinals. Once past the NCAA tournament’s first week, he’s had a knack for guiding his team further along the bracket, going 10-0 in the regional semifinals.
Rebounds—Louisville 39 (Behanan, Dieng 9), Michigan St. 36 (Green 16). Assists—Louisville 15 (Siva 9), Michigan St. 12 (Appling 4). Total Fouls—Louisville 11, Michigan St. 15. Attendance—14,913.
FLORIDA 68, MARQUETTE 58
PHOENIX — Bradley Beal scored 21 points Thursday to lift Florida to a victory over Marquette and set up Gators Coach Billy Donovan with a meeting against his old boss, Rick Pitino, in the NCAA Tournament West Regional final.
The seventh-seeded Gators (26-10) expanded a six-point halftime lead to more than 10 points, then held off third-seeded Marquette (27-8) to take their second consecutive trip to the regional final. Last year, they lost to Butler. This time, they meet Louisville and Pitino.
Beal, a freshman, shot 8 for 10 from the field, had 6 rebounds and 4 assists.
Marquette got 15 points from Jae Crowder and 14 from fellow senior Darius Johnson-Odom, but the Golden Eagles exited the tournament in the round of 16 for the second consecutive year.
Sports, Pages 24 on 03/23/2012