LAHAINA, Hawaii _ This felt like the tropical elixir Michigan State needed after as hard a day on the islands can be for a basketball team.
Far fewer turnovers and foul problems. Sound defense and rebounding. Sharing the ball and running in transition. A personal paradise for coach Tom Izzo and a 28-point lead for his Spartans with 16 { minutes to play against Georgia in the Maui Invitational.
But the tectonic plates of college basketball can shift swiftly and at any moment. And they moved in seismic fashion over the next 12 minutes.
Anthony Edwards turned into an offensive tsunami, impossible to stop with an endless wave of 3-pointers flying from his hands through the net.
The Bulldogs zone defense and shot-blocking destroyed the Spartans' previous ease.
Mount Izzo began to erupt.
But the cool breeze that is Cassius Winston pushed away the storm of one of the best individual performances ever against MSU.
Winston scored eight of his 28 points in the final 4:07, including a layup and four free throws in the last 1:32, as the third-ranked Spartans held off Georgia, 93-85.
The senior All-American countered a dramatic finish from Edwards, the Bulldogs highly touted freshman who had 33 of his 37 points in the final 16 minutes. That included seven 3-pointers after a 1-for-10 start from the field over the first 24 minutes.
Edwards went 10 of 16 in the final 16:01. Izzo had recruited the former five-star combo guard hard before losing the Atlanta product to his former assistant, Tom Crean.
Georgia cut the big MSU lead to two, 75-73, with 4:35 to play. But a big 3-pointer from Aaron Henry and a pair of Winston free throws kept the Spartans ahead.
That puts the Spartans (4-2) in line for a 2:30 p.m. ET tipoff against the winner of UCLA/Chaminade in Wednesday's aloha sayonara game.
Xavier Tillman had 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Henry finished with 14 points. Winston added eight assists and was 10 of 16 shooting.
