BUFFALO, NY – Jeremy Fears Jr. asserted himself and assisted Michigan State basketball’s onslaught from the outset.
A drive and dish to Carson Cooper, followed by a quick-whip swing pass out of a double team to Jaxon Kohler for a 3-pointer.
The All-American point guard didn’t stop distributing early, and the 3-seed Spartans powered their way to a 92-67 first-round NCAA Tournament victory over 14-seed North Dakota State on Thursday, March 19.
Despite scoring just seven points, Fears finished with 11 assists (nine of them in the first half) and Cooper tied a career high with 20 points and added 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season. Kohler finished with 12 points and nine boards, while Coen Carr added 17 points as MSU (26-7) advances to face 6-seed Louisville in Saturday’s second round of the East Regional at KeyBank Center. Tipoff time and broadcast information will be released late Thursday night.
Freshman Cam Ward led the Spartans’ bench assault with 13 points as their reserves outscored the Bison, 30-18. MSU also limited North Dakota State’s high-powered 3-point shooting to just 6-for-25.
Damari Wheeler-Thomas had 16 points, Trevian Carson had 11 and Treyson Anderson 10 for the Bison (27-8).
MSU's next game in NCAA tournament
The Spartans get a familiar foe in the second round with 6-seed Louisville, which survived a physical, sloppy battle with 11-seed South Florida, 83-79, in Thursday’s early game at KeyBank Center. The Cardinals hit 14 3-pointers and held the Bulls to just 5-for-33 shooting from beyond the arc, with Isaac McKneely scoring 23 points on 7-of-10 from, well-traveled guard Ryan Conwell getting 18 points and big man Sananda Fru adding 10 points and 10 rebounds.
But the Cardinals remain without star freshman guard Mikel Brown Jr. due to a back injury.
MSU and Louisville are 6-6 all-time against each other and 2-2 in the NCAA tournament, with the Spartans winning the last meeting in the 2015 East region final in nearby Syracuse, New York, to advance to Izzo’s seventh Final Four. MSU also defeated Louisville in the 2009 Midwest region final for another Final Four trip, while the Cardinals ended the Spartans’ seasons in 1959 (Mideast region final) and 2012 (West region semifinal). The Spartans won the most recent meeting, at home, 73-64, on Dec. 1, 2021.
Jeremy Fears dishes lead to swishes
Entering his second NCAA Tournament, after sitting out his first year after being shot, Fears had scored in double figures for 20 straight games. But it was clear from the start that the redshirt sophomore was looking to get his teammates involved in every way possible.
After the first two buckets, Fears set up Cooper for a layup and three-point play. Then on back-to-back plays after that, the All-Big Ten first-team point guard got Ward going for a layup after the freshman forward’s strong defense, followed by dishing to Ward again for a dunk that was part of the Spartans’ 18-2 takeover run. When Fears delivered a pass to a trailing Kohler for another 3-pointer with 12:20 left, NDSU coach David Richman called timeout to try and slow things down.
MSU built a 45-25 halftime lead on Fears’ ninth assist of the first half, an alley-oop to Coen Carr. All of that, and Fears only had two points on two free throws, missing both of his shot attempts. But the rest of the Spartans shot 55.2% while holding the Bison to just 2-for-15 from 3-point range and 33.3% overall.
It appeared Fears would break the MSU record for the NCAA Tournament record of 14, held by Magic Johnson. Johnson also had games of 13 and 12 assists, but Fears fell one shy of that with just two second-half assists. Fears' 17 assists against Maryland on Jan. 24 are both his career high and second only to Mateen Cleaves’ single-game program record of 20 (vs. Michigan in 2000).
The NCAA Tournament single-game record is 19, set against the Spartans by Markquis Nowell when Kansas State knocked off MSU in overtime of the 2023 Sweet 16 at Madison Square Garden.
However, he also was the beneficiary of a block-to-opposite corner kickout pass from Cooper through a double team, resulting in Fears’ first made basket – a 3-pointer from the right corner – with 15:12 to play and then scored a layup to make it a 28-point lead with a little less than 13 minutes left. Still, his streak of double-figure scoring ended.
Surprising contributions
The contributions came from every facet of MSU’s bench. But no one could have scripted the sequence that Denham Wojcik and Trey Fort produced in the first half.
The two senior transfers put together their best minutes as Spartans over a 5:51 stretch. Fort entered with 14:53 left in the first half and promptly grabbed a rebound and blocked a shot, then delivered a four-point play with a deep 3-pointer at 12:52 of the first half.
Wojcik entered the game 32 seconds later and also snagged a rebound immediately. Thhe backup point guard went on to hit a driving layup off a Kohler dish as time was about to expire on the shot clock, then banked in a short jumper two minutes later before checking out with Fort.
Fort and Wojcik each got second-half assists by setting up Kohler and Scott, respectively, for 3-pointers as MSU extended its lead. And Fort scored a late three-point play to finish with seven points and added an exclamation-point assist to Ward for a breakaway dunk in the final minute.
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State starts March Madness with blowout of North Dakota State