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EAST LANSING - Michigan State's women took a pick-your-poison approach to Saturday's game with sixth-ranked Ohio State, opting to focus on shutting down the Buckeyes' complementary players and forcing their stars to shine.
That part of the plan worked.
Too bad for the 19th-ranked Spartans that Samantha Prahalis and Jantel Lavender played like the basketball equivalent of hemlock and cyanide.
The duo combined for 52 points, scoring their team's final 22 over the last 17 minutes and leading the Buckeyes to a 65-62 comeback victory. The game was played in front of 12,412 - the third-largest women's crowd ever at Breslin Center.
With a national television audience watching, reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year Prahalis finished with a career-high 32 points for the Buckeyes (17-1, 5-0). Lavender, the two-time conference player of the year, added 20 points and 13 rebound to send the Spartans to 2-3 in league play and 11-5 overall.
"Our game plan worked pretty well," MSU junior guard Brittney Thomas said. "It was just in the last couple minutes, we let it slip away."
The Spartans - who never trailed by more than five points - led by four with 4:40 to play and again 61-59 on Thomas' two free throws just inside of two minutes. It would be their last lead.
Prahalis drew a foul on a give-and-go drive to the basket and made two freebies with 1:42 left. After Kalisha Keane's layup attempt was blocked by Andrea Walker, Prahalis again was fouled and hit two more at the line for a 63-61 lead.
Lykendra Johnson split a pair of free throws as MSU to cut the lead to one, but the Spartans' Aisha Jefferson then fouled Lavender with 34.8 seconds left. The junior All-American made both shots to put Ohio State back ahead by three.
Prahalis and Lavender went a combined 18-for-23 from the line.
"We have two great players. They're very competitive and want to win games," Buckeyes coach Jim Foster said. "They're going to take the responsibility ... . They're not afraid to take the shot that counts."
After a timeout with 30 seconds remaining, MSU spent 13 seconds looking for a shot before Keane's 3-point attempt was partially blocked by the Buckeyes' Sarah Schulze. As Johnson and two Ohio State players chased the loose ball, Lavender got it but fell down, getting whistled for a travel.
On the inbound, Allyssa DeHaan took the pass outside the arc after coming off a screen and launched an open 3-pointer that fell short. Thomas plucked the rebound, started dribbling out of the paint and tried to draw contact on a jump shot that plunked off the rim.
"I don't they outscrapped us or anything, I don't think they outhustled us. I think they just made some crucial shots at the end," Johnson said. "We had some good looks at the end, and they just came out with the ball."
Behind Jefferson's 13 early points, MSU built an 11-point lead deep into the first half, but she wouldn't score again.
Ohio State then went on a 21-6 run between the end of the first half and start of the second, taking its first lead of the game 2 1/2 minutes afer after the break. The Buckeyes got 3-pointers from Schulze, Prahalis and Brittany Johnson to open the second half with a 12-4 spurt.
"I think we had a lapse at the start of that second half," MSU coach Suzy Merchant said. "We were just a little bit flat, and that caught us off guard. But I thought we battled back."
The Spartans' offense went stagnant for much of the second half, shooting just 26.7 percent after the break and going without a field goal in the final 5:57.
"We had opportunities," Merchant said. "We went 0-for-8 from (3-point range) in the second half. You gotta make some shots, obviously. We had some really good high-post looks - a couple wide-open ones that just didn't fall for us. ... We had good looks with the right people shooting them."
Johnson finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Thomas added 10 points and DeHaan 12.
MSU next hosts Wisconsin on Thursday. The Badgers defeated MSU in their first meeting on Dec. 28, 62-54.
