Shay Colley's late basket lifts Michigan State women's basketball past Central Michigan

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Shay Colley wasn’t even excited as she walked back to the Michigan State huddle in the closing seconds after hitting the go-ahead shot.

The Spartan junior guard knew there was more work to do.

And she immediately yelled to teammates about a need to get a stop.

No. 9 seed MSU got the stop it needed and will continue dancing in the NCAA tournament after hanging on for an 88-87 victory over No. 8 Central Michigan in a first-round contest at Notre Dame’s Purcell Pavilion.

Colley hit the go-ahead basket with 7 seconds remaining while helping the Spartans (21-11) advance to face top seed and defending national champion Notre Dame on Monday.

“Coach trusted me to make that last play and I did,” said Colley, who finished with 13 points. “I’m just happy I had my teammates and coaching staff behind me."

Mid-American Conference regular-season champion CMU missed a potential go-ahead shot as time expired while seeing its season end with a 25-8 mark.

“That was a heck of a ball game,” Central coach Sue Guevara said. “We just didn’t have an answer. We didn’t have an answer inside. Sometimes you have to make a decision and give up the 3 or give up the 2.

“My heart couldn’t be happier with the effort that we gave. We were down 11 at one point and it would have been easy for a time to kind of pack it in and we didn’t. We kept fighting and we kept fighting. We had a great shot at the end. I think when you look at our big three, all of them touched the ball on that last play.”

CMU got big production out of its big three, with senior Reyna Frost leading all scorers with 34 points, while sophomore Micaela Kelly added 24 points and senior Presley Hudson scored 20. Hudson was a big reason the Chippewas overcame an 11-point deficit in the second half and found itself in a position to knock off a Big Ten team in the NCAA tournament for a second straight year.

Hudson hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 20 seconds left that gave the Chippewas an edge. But MSU had an answer in Colley, who drove to the basket for the go-ahead layup.

“Coach just wanted to get something downhill, maybe get a foul or try to finish at the rim,” MSU senior Jenna Allen said. “I thought Shay did a good job just setting it up. I feel like she’s one of the toughest players in the nation to guard off the dribble. We just kind of let her do her thing and she really pulled through for us."

Colley and Allen were among five players to score in double figures for the Spartans, who shot 67 percent in the final quarter to keep their season alive. Sidney Cooks matched a career-best with 21 points off the bench in her first career NCAA tournament contest, while freshman Nia Clouden scored 16 for the Spartans. Taryn McCutcheon scored 12 points and Allen added 10 points.

“I’m just really proud of this group,” MSU coach Suzy Merchant said. “We’ve had some really great moments in our season and we’ve struggled sometimes. Just to see them come together, I thought they were really committed on both sides of the ball.

“I just loved how we made plays, we got stops. I’m just really proud of this group. They played their hearts out and that’s what this time of year is all about."

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In NCAA tournament debut, Sidney Cooks has big presence for MSU women's basketball

Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @brian_calloway.