Fantastic finishes in Big Ten semifinals deliver March Madness feel heading into championship game

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Tre Donaldson made the drive of his life on Saturday, going the length of the floor for a buzzer-beating layup to send No. 22 Michigan into the Big Ten Tournament title game.

Michigan State guard Jeremy Fears Jr. never got his chance. His last-second heave from the mid-court logo was jarred loose in the waning seconds, and No. 18 Wisconsin scooped up the ball and ran out the clock.

Welcome to March Madness, Big Ten style.

In less than three hours, two games in Indianapolis came down, literally, to the final play. Donaldson’s magical moment will go down as an instant classic in Michigan lore.

“This is something a kid dreams of his whole life,” Donaldson said after the last of his 12 points gave Michigan an 81-80 victory over No. 11 Maryland. “I mean, playing Division I basketball at a school like Michigan with the legacy it has and being able to make a shot like that, it’s unreal.”

Donaldson executed the play perfectly after first-year coach Dusty May called time with 5.3 seconds left and Michigan trailing 80-79.

Donaldson caught the ball on the run, sprinted up the floor and when he couldn’t find an open teammate and had no defender in front of him, the 6-foot-3 junior drove straight to the unprotected rim as the clock hit 0.1.

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The go-ahead layup quickly brought back memories among college basketball fans who had watched Danny Ainge of Brigham Young run a similar play in the 1981 NCAA Tournament or Tyus Edney replicating that magic to keep UCLA alive in the 1995 tourney.

And even though the refs reset the clock to 0.4 seconds, requiring someone to tip away Maryland’s desperation pass to close it out, add another chapter to the continuing story of fantastic finishes in March.

“The play was either to make a play for myself or make it for my teammates,” Donaldson said. “When I got down there, they took away my teammates, so it was just about me making a play for the team and for me as well.”

It came less than three hours after the Spartans thought their magical moment also had arrived. The regular-season conference champs and winners of eight straight came to Indy hoping to make yet another championship run.

They were again on the cusp just 13 days after beating the Badgers 71-62 in East Lansing. Michigan State controlled most of the first half and Wisconsin controlled most of the second as the time wound down and the plot thickened.

Jaxon Kohler’s 3-pointer with 61 seconds to go cut the Badgers’ lead to 72-70. With 14.9 seconds left, Fears made two free throws to get the Spartans within 75-74. Wisconsin guard John Tonje followed with two more free throws to make it a three-point game.

That’s when the nuttiness began.

Tre Holloman’s potentially tying 3 from the top of the key was well off the mark and the Spartans fouled Tonje, a 90% free-throw shooter, with 6 seconds to go. Tonje missed both, setting up Fears for a chance to force overtime with a deep heave. But Tonje got just enough of the ball to knock it away, ruining Fears’ chance.

Fears and teammate Jase Richardson immediately pleaded with the refs for the call that never came, one longtime Michigan State coach Tom Izzo wasn’t sure even occurred.

“It had to be a great game for TV,” Izzo said. “Officiating wasn’t bad, I can’t even complain. I don’t know, that last one looked questionable. Somebody told me it was clean, but I didn’t (see it). But we lost the game before that, so why should I be mad at them for things we did wrong earlier (in the game)?”

There’s still one winner-takes-all game left in Indy — Sunday when Wisconsin and Michigan meet for the second time this season. Michigan won Round 1, 76-68 in Ann Arbor.

Could there be another fantastic finish Sunday? Well, it’s still March.

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