The Tribune

LOURAWLS 'Tum Tum' Nairn's bid to become the first Bahamian basketball player to play in the NCCA championship game ended in Indianapolis on Saturday night when his Michigan State Spartans were beaten comfortably by Duke.

The Spartans started brightly and quickly took an eight-point lead in the first Final Four semi-final. But after junior guard Denzel Valentine's trio of long-range shots, Michigan State struggled to make baskets against a strong Duke defence. The foul count mounted up against them and with freshman Justise Winslow leading the way for the Blue Devils with 19 points and national freshman of the year Jahlil Okafor scoring 18 points, the Spartans were never able to keep the lead below double figures. They were well beaten 81-61.

Valentine finished with 22 points and a game-high 11 rebounds and senior guard Travis Trice had 16 points for Michigan. Nairn, the former CR Walker Senior High School pupil, is only the third Bahamian after Rick Fox and Magnum Rolle to feature in the Final Four and had played a major role in the Spartans upsetting more fancied teams throughout March Madness.

"We got beat and ... Duke played awfully well, but I thought it wasn't one of our better games," Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo said.

Duke, four times the national champions, face Wisconsin in the championship game on Monday after the Badgers ended the Kentucky Wildcats' bid for a perfect season in the second semi-final. Kentucky came into the game as the first men's team ever to have a 38-0 win-loss record and led 60-56 with six and a half minutes left.

Wisconsin, who rallied to keep Kentucky scoreless for five minutes and claim a 71-64 victory, will be looking to win their first title since 1941.