Granger tied career high with 19 points
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS -- Most everyone knew Michigan State had the
Flintstones. Now the basketball world knows about A.J. Granger,
too.
Granger matched his career high with 19 points to help the
Spartans beat Florida 89-76 on Monday night for their first NCAA
title since 1979.
|  | | A.J. Granger's 19 points tied a career high, set earlier in the tournament. |
"We called him the 'X' factor going into the game," Florida
coach Billy Donovan said. "We knew that Mateen Cleaves and Morris
Peterson were going to probably play well and do a good job
handling our press."
Peterson led the Spartans with 21 points and Cleaves, despite
missing about four minutes because of an injured ankle, added 18
for Michigan State.
Donovan said the Gators needed to stop Granger from stepping out
and making 3-point shots. They didn't. Granger was 3-of-8 from
beyond the arc.
Granger, a senior from Findlay, Ohio, who was recruited in the
same class as Cleaves and Peterson, said the Spartans were one step
ahead of Donovan. They figured Florida would gamble on spending
most of its energy trying to defend Peterson and Cleaves.
"I'm not the go-to guy, so I got more good shots," Granger
said. "They got me open tonight, set some picks for me. Then, I
just had to make the shots."
There were other unsung heroes for the Spartans, of course.
Jason Richardson, Mike Chappell, Adam Ballinger all played key
roles off the bench as the Spartans beat the Gators at their own
warp-speed game.
"It just seems like somebody on this team steps up every
night," Granger said. "Tonight, it just happened to be me and
Morris."
Michigan State also got a gutty performance from Charlie Bell,
who isn't nearly as well-known as fellow Flintstones Cleaves and
Peterson.
During a stretch of about four minutes when Cleaves was out
getting his right ankle tapped after a hard fall early in the
second half, Bell held the Spartans together.
If the Spartans, leading by six points at the time, were going
to fold, this might have been the time. But they had been in this
situation before -- for the first two months of the season.
Bell played point guard for the Spartans' first 13 games while
Cleaves recovered from a stress fracture in that right foot. He did
it again in the biggest game of his life and Michigan State had
increased its lead to nine points by the time Cleaves limped back
onto the court.
But it was Granger who gave the Spartans an unexpected offensive
push -- something they felt would be vital against Florida's
in-your-face defense.
Every time the Gators collapsed on Peterson, Cleaves and Andre
Hutson, it was Granger who shredded their strategy. He hit
3-pointers, drove the baseline for leaners in the paint, and
battled underneath for rebounds.
Every time it seemed like the Gators had come up with a stop, it
seemed Granger would get the ball and somehow hit a basket.
Granger has been quietly outstanding during this entire
tournament run. He averaged 9.3 points during the regular season,
but put his game on another level once the tournament started.
Granger also scored 19 against Syracuse and 18 against Iowa in the
Midwest Regionals.
"This is a night when we had a lot of guys do a lot of
things," Spartans coach Tom Izzo said. "I don't know what we
would have done without some of those subs." |
