Lights out for Eastern Michigan

Cleaves leads Spartans past Boykins' Eagles in intrastate battle

Cleaves, called for three fouls in the first half while guarding 5-foot-5 phenom Earl Boykins, played with poise in the second half as Michigan State beat Eastern Michigan 83-71 in the East Regional on Thursday.

Cleaves finished with 20 points on 7-for-14 shooting and stayed out of foul trouble in the final 20 minutes to help the 16th-ranked and fourth-seeded Spartans advance to tomorrow's second round.

"I thought the job Mateen did, with the foul trouble he was in, was phenomenal," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.

AP PHOTO Eastern Michigan's Earl Boykins drives past Michigan State's Charlie Bell during the first half of their game yesterday. Boykins and his teammates could not get past the Spartans, however, falling 83-71.

Mixing in some zone defense helped. The Spartans were able to limit the perimeter shooting of Boykins and Derrick Dial in the second half, and to pick up Boykins when he slashed by Cleaves through the lane.

"We knew they caused a lot of problems in one-on-one matchups," Cleaves said. "It was a team effort. ... The team did a great job helping me out with Boykins."

Charlie Bell celebrated his 19th birthday with a career-high 22 points for Michigan State (21-7), which will face eighth-ranked and fifth-seeded Princeton, which beat UNLV in the first game of last night's doubleheader.

Dial led Eastern Michigan (20-10) with 29 points and proved the more lethal of the Eagles' dangerous backcourt duo. He was 8-for-10 in the first half but finished 11-for-22 from the field.

Boykins finished with 18 points but missed eight of his nine 3-point shots and was 6-for-21 from the floor. He had one assist.

"As a basketball player, you have bad games and you have good games. This was bad game," said Boykins, a good nine inches shorter and 20 pounds lighter than any player in Michigan State's lineup.

Eastern Michigan coach Milton Barnes pointed out how the Eagles finished a season-low 2-for-19 from 3-point range. Dial and Boykins were a combined 2-for-15 from beyond the arc.

"Give Michigan State a lot of credit, doing a great job in the zone, shutting down Earl," Barnes said.

The game was delayed for a few minutes after the lights suddenly went out with 3:15 remaining and Michigan State leading 73-62. The rest of the game was played in a dimmed arena.

The Spartans improved to 25-3 against the Eagles in the first meeting between the in-state rivals since a Michigan State victory in December 1989.

Cleaves, trying to recover from a 2-for-19 shooting performance against Minnesota in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals, was tagged for his second foul less than six minutes into the game.

He sat down with Michigan State trailing 12-9 and the Spartans fell behind 16-9 with him on the bench. When Cleaves returned, the Spartans outscored the Eagles 13-4 to go ahead 22-20, its first lead since 7-6.

Dial's jumper from just inside the 3-point line tied the game, and he put Eastern Michigan back up 26-25 with a four-point play.

Cleaves, guarded by Boykins, scored five straight points, on a 3-pointer and a pull-up jumper from the right corner, to give Eastern Michigan a key boost late in the half.

"He's a good player," Boykins said. "I always give respect to those who play well against me. And he sure did that."

After Bell pushed the lead to 37-30 with a jumper, Cleaves was called for his third foul for hand-checking Boykins and was on the bench again with 2:41 left in the first half.

03-13-98