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EAST LANSING - No matter how much the MSU women's basketball team fought and persevered, Suzy Merchant's halftime words eventually proved prophetic.
After rallying in each half from double-digit deficits, not properly blocking out Notre Dame players on free throws Thursday night would eventually become Michigan State's undoing.
A free throw by Notre Dame's Ashley Barlow with 10 seconds left and a running miss by Aisha Jefferson with four ticks remaining helped the fifth-ranked Irish hold off the No. 21 MSU women, 68-67.
Following the loss, Merchant came into the locker room "cherry faced," Spartan sophomore Lykendra Johnson said.
"She just let us have it. She said, 'Didn't I say at halftime that it was going to cost us the game?' "Johnson recalled later.
Even with Merchant on the sideline flailing her elbows backward before Barlow's shot, imploring her team to box out for the rebound, the Spartans failed to do so.
"I think everybody is pretty mad, including me," Merchant said. "I walked out of that locker room probably as mad as I've been as a coach in the history of my career because of the way it ended with the free-throw situation and it being a big part of our scouting report."
It unraveled with the score tied at 67-all, after MSU had taken a five-point lead midway through the final half only to watch Notre Dame (2-0) recover. And the Spartans also missed a quality chance to win it in the final 15 seconds.
First, Johnson drove baseline and, as three Irish defenders collapsed, dropped the ball to a wide-open Allyssa DeHaan in the middle of the paint. The 6-foot-9 senior's shot rattled off the rim and out, into the hands of Notre Dame's Lindsay Schrader.
"It was a great pass, it was a great play," DeHaan said. "I felt like I was completely open. I wish I could take it back."
As Schrader smothered the ball, the ref blew the whistle for a foul and said Johnson hit Schrader in the face. Johnson pleaded her case to no avail, picking up her fifth and final foul with 11.7 seconds left.
"I didn't touch her," said Johnson, who finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds. "(The ref) said I poked her in the eye and that that was a foul."
Schrader, however, missed the front end of a one-and-one, and it appeared DeHaan had grabbed the board. But just as quickly, Barlow stuck her hand between DeHaan's, poked the ball free and got thrown to the ground in the scrum by Jefferson. It also sent Notre Dame into the double-bonus and gave them two free throws.
Barlow, who led the Irish with 18 points, missed the first. With the 5,274 fans at Breslin screaming, she made the second for a one-point lead.
Jefferson took the ensuing inbound pass and raced up court, taking a running one-handed shot in the lane with four seconds left. It clanged off the rim into Barlow's hands. She was tied up for a jump ball, but the Irish retained possession and ran out the final one second.
DeHaan finished with a game-high 20 points and eight rebounds.
