STUNNED

SPOKANE, Wash. – As Michigan State basketball players streamed onto the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena court Sunday to celebrate an improbable NCAA Tournament second-round victory, Greivis Vasquez hoped it all might've been a little too improbable.

With his teammates milling about in various stages of shock over Spartan Korie Lucious' go-ahead buzzer-beating 3-pointer, the Terrapin star plopped down on one of the black padded seats on the Terps' bench, arms stretched over the backs of the seats on either side.

In less than a minute, the referees — satisfied with the replay of the jumper from the top of the key — signaled the basket had beaten the buzzer.

Only then did Vasquez pop up and trudge toward the locker room without stopping to talk to any of his teammates or opponents — his Terps' career officially finished and hopes of qualifying for his first Sweet 16 unceremoniously dashed.

No. 5 seed Michigan State shocked the No. 4 seed Terps 85-83 on Lucious' game-winner, denying Vasquez a chance to add postseason hero to his impressive list of career credentials.

In one instant, the Terps seemed to have completed an extraordinary double-digit second-half comeback on Vasquez's go-ahead floater with six seconds left.

In the next, Lucious' jumper extinguished the Terps' fledgling tournament run, ensuring their fourth straight NCAA second round exit.

"I thought we had the game won, and they come back and hit a big three," said Vasquez, who passed Len Bias to move into second on the Terps' all-time scoring list with his 26 points. "I mean give [Lucious] credit that he's definitely going to remember that shot for the rest of his life."

The Terps trailed by 12 points with less than seven minutes left. But they used their press to make a final push against Michigan State, who was without a pair of their normal starting guards, Kalin Lucas and Chris Allen, for the entire second half due to injury.

Vasquez, who had 10 points in the game's final 1:53, nearly willed his team into its first Sweet 16 since 2003. His field goals with 35 and six seconds left gave the Terps their first leads since early in the first half. But each time, the Big Ten regular season co-champions found an answer.

First, forward Draymond Green swished a long jumper with 20 seconds left to put the Spartans back ahead.

After Vasquez's final field goal as a Terp, Michigan State quickly pushed the ball up court, and Green found Lucious for the game-winner.

In the ensuing moments, Terps' forward Jordan Williams simply sat in the paint where he was when the shot dropped as Michigan State players and their mascot, Sparty, piled on Lucious at the other end of the floor.

"We just didn't put a hand up," guard Adrian Bowie said. "He had an open look. He had an open shot. That's my fault, and it's everybody else on the court's fault."

For much of the game, it looked as if the Terps might never muster a final push. Thanks to guard Durrell Summers' three-point marksmanship and forward Raymar Morgan's timely scoring, the Terps never trimmed the second-half deficit to fewer than seven until Vasquez's three-point play with 1:53 left made the score 80-74.

Without its most trusted ball handlers, Michigan State (26-8) proceeded to turn the ball over on four straight possessions, giving Vasquez ample opportunities to cut the lead. The Spartans had 19 turnovers in the game, leading to 22 Terp points.

But in the final minute, the defending national runner-up, whose chemistry issues throughout the season sometimes made more news than its on-court play, made just enough plays to jump-start another deep tournament run.

"It just seemed like we were going to win that game, and then we had it taken away from us," coach Gary Williams said afterward. "So this is tough."

Fittingly, the Terp seniors, Vasquez, Eric Hayes and Landon Milbourne, led the second-half charge, finishing as the team's three highest scorers.

Even as Williams juggled the lineup in the final minutes trying to find the right mix of athleticism to run the press and scoring ability to erase the deficit, the team's 1,000-plus point scorers left their marks.

Vasquez finished with 26 points, eight assists and three steals. Hayes had 18 points and seven assists, and Milbourne added 11 points.

The fiery Venezuelan said the team's gritty effort in the final minutes is something the seniors will be able to take with them beyond the basketball court — a lesson in perseverance.

"It's tough to think about now, but I'm sure down the road that we'll look back and be very proud of how we came back in this game."

But there will no doubt be a sense of a missed opportunity. With No. 1 overall seed Kansas eliminated from the Midwest region earlier in the weekend, the Terps (24-9) knew the winner of this game had a clearer road to bigger things heading to this week's games in St. Louis.

The Spartans advanced and will play No. 9 seed Northern Iowa, while the Terps' season came to an abrupt close.

In the end, it came down to a harrowing final sequence and a highlight that the Terps will remember for all the wrong reasons.

"I can't really describe it," Milbourne said of the final shot. "The only thing you can do in that situation is just hope that it doesn't go in, or at least hope that he didn't make it in time.

"But he did."

edetweiler@umdbk.com