Michigan State: 2017 Holiday Bowl Champions

SAN DIEGO -- Michigan State put a nice, big exclamation mark on its turnaround season.

Brian Lewerke threw for 213 yards and three touchdowns, and LJ Scott ran for 110 yards and two scores for No. 18 Michigan State, which took advantage of Luke Falk's absence to rout No. 21 Washington State 42-17 in the Holiday Bowl on Thursday night.

Lewerke also rushed for 73 yards for Michigan State (10-3), which rebounded from a dismal 3-9 record last year to reach double digits in wins for the eighth time in program history.

"We were ready to play. We were fresh," said Mark Dantonio, who earned his 100th victory in 11 seasons as Spartans coach. "It wasn't good enough to win nine games. We needed to win 10. We needed to have a great bowl game. This was a national stage. Holiday Bowl is an outstanding bowl. It's catapulted us up the rankings at least a little bit further.

"We reaffirmed our stature a little bit in college football. This has been a good football team and should continue to be a good football team."

Falk, who was photographed earlier in the week with a cast on his left wrist, went through warmups but came out in street clothes at game time. He was replaced by redshirt sophomore Tyler Hilinksi, who made his first start and eighth appearance of the season. It's unclear precisely when Falk injured the wrist on his non-throwing hand, but he had issues with it throughout the season.

Coach Mike Leach refused to give specifics during the week and was condescending afterward when asked about Falk's injury.

"Luke is doing exactly what we want Luke to do and Luke has had a fine career here and also done a great deal for this program, probably more than most people will ever realize," Leach said. "Tyler was the ideal guy to start with our lineup today."

Pressed on Falk's injury, Leach said: "You will remain unclear on it. Next question."

Hilinski led WSU (9-4) to a 45-yard field goal by Erik Powell on the Cougars' second drive, but the Cougars were overpowered by the Spartans.

Lewerke threw the first of two TD passes to Cody White, a 7-yarder midway through the second quarter, when he was flushed to the left but found the receiver in the back of the end zone.

On MSU's next possession, Lewerke took the snap and glanced at his running back, which froze the secondary and allowed Felton Davis III to get wide open for a 49-yard scoring pass.

"The quick answer is our eyes weren't in the right place," Leach said. "But the answer is we didn't do our job. I did think we unraveled a little bit after that play."

Scott scored on a 3-yard run to give the Spartans a 21-3 halftime time.

Early in the third, Lewerke rolled left and had his pass tipped, but a sliding White caught it for a 7-yard touchdown.

Lewerke, who finished 13 of 21, was hit hard on a keeper in the third quarter and came out for a few plays. His backup, Damion Terry, scored on a 6-yard keeper to make it 35-3.

The Cougars closed the gap when Hilinski threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Tay Martin late in the third quarter and a 15-yarder to Tay in the fourth quarter.

Scott scored on a 28-yard burst up the middle with about six minutes left to play.

Hilinski was 39 of 50 for 272 yards and two touchdowns, with one interception.

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Lewerke said he was "very careful" on his long throw to Davis. "I saw how wide open he was and I tried to throw it right at him and make sure."

THE TAKEAWAY

Washington State: It was the second straight lackluster Holiday Bowl for Leach's Cougars, who lost 17-12 to Minnesota last year. Besides being without Falk, leading receiver Tavares Martin Jr. was kicked off the team after the regular season and third-leading receiver Isaiah Johnson-Mack left the squad. The Cougars, who started 6-0, were routed in their final two games, including a 41-14 loss to rival Washington.

Michigan State: Scott had his third 100-yard game of the season and ninth of his career. Felton had four catches for 118 yards.

UP NEXT


Washington State: Falk will move on to the NFL Draft while Hilinski will take over the Air Raid offense. It was Hilinski who led the Cougars to a comeback victory against Boise State in triple overtime on Sept. 9 after Falk was knocked out of the game.

Michigan State: The young Spartans appear to be in good hands with Lewerke, who was just a redshirt sophomore this season. "We can build off the momentum this game brings us," he said. "We've got a lot of young guys, still a lot of work to be done, a lot of potential to be reached. It's very big for us."

Michigan State Spartans: Big Ten Men's Basketball Champions

INDIANAPOLIS -- Michigan State has won its warm-up tournament thanks to a critical late shot by its national player of the year candidate, and can now at last prepare to take its shot at the title that means the most.

The Spartans beat Purdue on Sunday afternoon at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, 66-62, to claim their second Big Ten conference tournament championship in three years.

Michigan State will now immediately find out its draw in the NCAA Tournament, when the field is announced starting at 5:30 p.m. on CBS.

The Spartans entered the day projected as a No. 1 seed in the tournament, and is expected to hold on to that seeding after winning three games in three days to take the Big Ten title.

The Spartans head into that tournament overflowing with momentum. They've lost just once since Jan. 20, having won 13 of their last 14 games. They picked up plenty of recognition along the way as a national title favorite.

Michigan State led for the entire second half Sunday, but Purdue pulled within one point with 2:48 left.

Denzel Valentine then hit a contested, double-pump midrange jumper with 1:47 left to send Spartans fans into a frenzy. Michigan State held on through the finish, as Matt Costello missed a key free throw but then atoned for the miss with a block on the other end.

While Valentine hit the key late shot, Michigan State relied on its depth as much as it has all season, especially early in the game.

After Purdue led for most of the first 13 minutes, Michigan State retook the lead with a nine-point run primarily with an unlikely lineup on the floor: Tum Tum Nairn, Alvin Ellis, Eron Harris, Gavin Schilling and Colby Wollenman.

After Harris hit two free throws, Nairn found Schilling for a transition alley-oop, then Wolleman scored a layup over Swanigan to force a Purdue timeout. Ellis made consecutive baskets later in the half to send the Spartans into the break with a 36-26 lead.

In all, eight Michigan State players scored in the first half.

Purdue fought back to within one point in the second half, at 52-51 with 7:47 left, after a seven-point run capped off by an A.J. Hammons dunk.

From there, Michigan State went on a tournament-clinching run, started by its key players but finished off by a reserve.

Michigan State scored on four straight possessions to retake a seven-point lead. Valentine assisted the first two baskets, a Bryn Forbes 3-pointer and a Matt Costello running layup.

Wollenman recorded an assist on an Eron Harris 3-pointer, then notched perhaps the most improbable basket of Michigan State's season: a putback dunk off of a missed Costello 3-pointer that put the Spartans up 62-55 with 5:08 left. And the Spartans held on to the lead.

Valentine finished with 15 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. He was the only Michigan State player in double figures.

HIGHLIGHTS
• Purdue came into the game having shot 50 percent or better from the floor in its last six games, a stat that had helped the Boilermakers win five straight games. A night after the Spartans held Maryland without a field goal for a 10-minute straight late in the game, it held Purdue to 38.2 percent shooting with another stretch of tough defense.

• An afterthought for most of the season, Alvin Ellis capped off a strong Big Ten tournament with his best outing yet. He scored six points against Maryland in the tournament semifinals, and followed that up with five points Sunday in extended minutes. His two late first-half buckets helped the Spartans head into halftime with momentum.

• The tournament final pitted the top two rebounding teams in the Big Ten, and Michigan State came away with a decisive victory in the category. The Spartans won that battle, 41-31, and had 14 second-chance points compared to four for Purdue.

LOWLIGHTS
• Bryn Forbes capped off a quiet Big Ten tournament with a 1-for-6 effort from 3-point range, and had nine points. He was guarded largely by Rapheal Davis, one of the conference's premiere defenders, but also turned down shots he typically takes. He opened the second half by missing a wide open 3-pointer on a set play for him.

• Michigan State started the game 4-for-15 from the field and allowed Purdue to jump ahead to a four-point lead on multiple occasions. As was the case in the two teams' regular season matchup, Michigan State struggled to finish underneath against Purdue's frontcourt, which features a pair of 7-foot centers plus 6-foot-9 Caleb Swanigan.

• Michigan State's heavy reliance on its reserve frontcourt players in the first half was in large part due to Deyonta Davis picking up two fouls before the midway point of the first half. He had to sit the rest of the half.

NOTES
• Michigan State has now won five Big Ten tournaments championships, including three since 2012. Its total is now one more than Ohio State, which also entered the tournament with four Big Ten tournament titles.

Michigan State: 2015 Cotton Bowl Champions

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Connor Cook and the Michigan State Spartans want to have a different role in the playoff talk next season.

With their big comeback finish in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, the No. 8 Spartans could be set up as a viable championship contender next season, after their only losses this season were to playoff teams.

Michigan State scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter on New Year's Day to beat playoff-snubbed and No. 5 Baylor 42-41 in the highest-scoring Cotton Bowl ever.

"For us to win in such an emotional and dramatic fashion like you just saw out there, really just I think with all the guys coming back, all the juniors, really just makes us feel good and brings us closer together," said Cook, who threw a 10-yard TD pass to Keith Mumphery with 17 seconds left.

Michigan State (11-2), which won the Rose Bowl as Big Ten champions last season, has won four consecutive bowl games after trailing in each of them at halftime. The Spartans' only two losses this season were to Pac-12 winner Oregon and Big Ten champ Ohio State.

Down 41-21 going into the fourth quarter, Michigan State got the winning touchdown afterMarcus Rush blocked Chris Callahan's 43-yard field goal attempt with 1:05 left.

"It's just sort of crazy," coach Mark Dantonio said. "I really probably can't put it into words. We just kept pace. We didn't panic."

When two-time Big 12 champ Baylor got the ball back for one last try, Bryce Petty was sacked on consecutive plays before Riley Bullough's clinching interception.

That was quite a final defensive stand under coordinator Pat Narduzzi, who after 11 seasons and two schools with Dantonio is leaving the Spartans to take over as head coach at Pittsburgh. Narduzzi will be about 20 miles away Friday to watch the Panthers play Houston in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl on the TCU campus.

The Cotton Bowl was the lead-in game Thursday to the two national semifinals that Baylor (11-2) hoped to be part of instead -- though that doesn't matter now.

"We've played a lot of really good games over the last seven seasons. Won a lot of really good games. And this is one of the tougher non-wins that I've ever experienced," Baylor coach Art Briles said. "It's got nothing to do with the big picture. The small picture right now is letting a game get away from us today."

Petty completed 36 of 51 passes for a Cotton Bowl-record 550 yards and three touchdowns, two to speedy freshman KD Cannon and the other to 390-pount backup guard LaQuan McGowan in the third quarter for a 41-21 lead. Baylor had 583 total yards, even with minus-20 yards rushing.

Jeremy Langford ran for 162 yards and three touchdowns for the Spartans. Cook was 24-of-42 passing for 314 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions.

Langford's 1-yard plunge with 4:55 left got the Spartans to 41-35, a play after Cook's 10-yard scramble that was initially ruled a touchdown before a replay review.

Callahan had a 46-yard field goal attempt that ricocheted off the right upright to start the fourth quarter. Michigan State then got Cook's 8-yard TD pass to tight end Josiah Price and recovered an onside kick.

Cook threw a 39-yard pass on the first play after the recovery, but was scrambling to avoid pressure on the next when he threw an awkward pass right to linebacker Taylor Young, who ran 84 yards to the end zone.

Young's apparent touchdown was wiped out by an illegal block, pushing Baylor back to its 43. After Petty's fourth-down incompletion, Michigan State went 60 yards for Langford's final score.

"You hate to 'if' it, but if you don't hit the upright, if you don't get a field goal blocked, if you don't have an offensive facemask, if you don't get a penalty on an interception return, then I think we feel a lot different right now," Briles said.

Baylor was fifth in the final College Football Playoff rankings, a spot ahead of Big 12 co-champion TCU, which the Bears beat 61-58 in October with its own 21-point comeback in the fourth quarter. The Horned Frogs won their bowl game handily, beating Mississippi 42-3 in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Wednesday.

Cannon, already with a 49-yard TD catch, split two Michigan State defenders and was in a full sprint when he reached out with both hands and made a fingertip grab near the 35. He gathered the ball in and ran to the end zone to finish a 74-yard TD before Callahan added another field goal for a 34-14 lead early in the third quarter.

Cannon finished with eight catches for 197 yards. Corey Coleman had seven catches for 150 yards, including a 53-yard score on a throw from fellow receiver Jay Lee.

"When you're down like that against a potent offense that's pretty much scoring at will, it doesn't really look too good," Cook said. "It's just a true statement never to give up."

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.