No. 2 seed Michigan State did it. The Spartans slayed the giants of college basketball. In a thrilling 68-67 down-to-the-wire win, Michigan State ousted No. 1 overall seed Duke at Capital One Arena on Sunday evening, punching its ticket to the Final Four. Duke, the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, had flirted with fire too often in the NCAA Tournament. After single-possession victories over UCF and over Virginia Tech in the second round and Sweet 16, respectively, the Blue Devils finally got burned in a stunning defeat. RJ Barrett had a chance to tie it at 68 from the free-throw line with six seconds remaining, but he went 1 of 2, and Duke never scored again. Credit to Tom Izzo and Michigan State. This was not a fluky outcome. Duke didn't choke a lead late. Michigan State didn't pull this off in Cinderella fashion. Izzo's Spartans were the better, more sound team for 40 minutes. They led for 22 minutes of game time, and came up big when it mattered. Spartans star Cassius Winston came up the biggest, though. Michigan State's trusty guard scored 20 points and dished out 10 assists in the winning effort. It was an assist to Xavier Tillman to keep Sparty within striking distance late. A steal. A made jumper. Fittingly, it was Winston, the Big Ten Player of the Year, who dribbled out the final seconds of a game Sparty fans won't soon forget. Duke's stars were tremendous in their own right. Zion Williamson scored 24 points and grabbed 14 boards while Barrett added 21 points and six boards. But boneheaded decision-making -- careless turnovers, poor shot selection and bad passing -- led to a 17-7 turnover battle won by the Spartans and lost in a landslide by Duke. The Spartans scored 24 points off those turnovers, compared to Duke's nine, and that about speaks for itself. What's clear after 40 minutes of basketball in D.C. is that the most talented team doesn't always advance. Duke might have four first-round draft picks on its roster, and Michigan State might not have a player get drafted. But what's clear the most: the best team absolutely came away victorious. The Spartans will appear in their 10th Final Four -- and eighth under Tom Izzo -- next week when they face No. 3 seed Texas Tech in Minneapolis. CBS Sports was with you for complete coverage of Sunday's game from Washington with our live blog below. If you are having trouble viewing the blog, please click here. Duke vs. Michigan State commentary Thanks for stopping by.<doc-sep>Photo : Rob Carr ( Getty ) It is one of those historical ironies of the sport that Duke is heading home because the refs didn’t call many fouls on them. Usually, the free-throw disparity—the Blue Devils took 13 to Michigan State’s six—and perceived favoritism works in Duke’s favor. But not on Sunday, not in the closing seconds of the Spartans’ 68-67 Elite Eight win, when Duke would have given anything to have been whistled a couple more times. Advertisement No conspiracy here, just relatively disciplined Duke defense and a set of officials that swallowed their whistles for both teams (if anything, Michigan State could’ve been penalized more often for bodying Zion Williamson nearly every time he drove to the basket). However it happened, the Blue Devils had racked up just three fouls in the second half before R.J. Barrett missed a free throw—then accidentally made another—that would have tied the game with 5.2 seconds left. That meant that intentionally fouling did not send MSU to the line and give the Blue Devils back the ball; all it did was set up an inbounds play for a trip to the Final Four. Before Xavier Tillman inbounded the ball, he gave Cassius Winston a glance. Oh, hell, might as well capitalize it. The Glance. A lot can be conveyed in a nod, a raised brow. “I kind of told him I saw the way Tre was guarding him and I was like, ‘I’m just going to throw it up court because nobody’s expecting us to go up court,’” Tillman said. “I told Kenny [Goins], ‘Go that way. Cash, go that way.’ And then I smacked the ball. I tried to fake it and Cash got open.” Cassius Winston broke back toward the baseline, shedding Tre Jones, bumped R.J. Barrett, then broke free and broke upcourt. Advertisement Once Winston had the ball in his hands—and once he wisely dribbled to the corner instead of going for a quick bucket—the game was over. “It was shocking,” Winston said. “I thought was going to get fouled. I was preparing my mind to knock down some free throws. But I got the ball and got away. And I was, like, ‘I’m like about to dribble it out, and this is really happening.’” Advertisement Why didn’t Duke foul Winston? It wouldn’t have done any good. They were still three fouls short of the bonus.<doc-sep>WASHINGTON — Cassius Winston held the ball and ran with it as time expired, looking more like an elusive Michigan State running back than a point guard as he evaded all last-second attempts to foul him. The top overall seed, the one with the most dominant freshman in years, was about to fall. Winston had just played every second of the game. With 20 points and 10 assists, the junior was the second-seeded Spartans’ best player against top-seeded Duke in Sunday’s regional final. But without heroics from all its players, Michigan State would have been merely forgettable roadkill on Duke’s inexorable path. There was Xavier Tillman. With just over a minute left, he scored 5 points on two shots and a free throw, cutting the deficit to 1 point.<doc-sep>
Michigan State beat Duke in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. Down the stretch, with Duke trailing by one, they were suddenly at a disadvantage because they needed to foul four times in six seconds to stop the clock and send Michigan State to the free throw line. On the ensuing inbounds, Michigan State escaped Duke, and ran out the clock to advance in the NCAA Tournament. The Duke Blue Devils lost to the Michigan State Spartans, 68-67, on Sunday in the Elite Eight. The loss ends the NCAA Tournament run for the overwhelming favorites, while Michigan State advances to the Final Four to play Texas Tech. The game did not end on any wild buzzer-beaters or game-changing plays, but one facet of the game turned out to be a major disadvantage for Duke down the stretch. With the Spartans leading 68-66, Duke forward R.J. Barrett got sent to the free throw line with six seconds remaining. He missed the first, then attempted to intentionally miss the second shot — with the hope that Duke could get the offensive rebound and tie the game — but the ball bounced in. Duke fouled Michigan State when they inbounded the ball, but there was one problem — Duke still had three fouls to give to send the Spartans to the free throw line. While it would normally be an advantage to have only fouled three times prior to the end-of-game strategy, in Duke's case, it meant that in the course of six seconds, they had to commit three fouls just to send Michigan State to the line, then go full-court to go for the game-tying or game-winning shot. Duke's only real chance was to get a steal on the inbounds pass. Unfortunately, for Duke, on the inbounds, Michigan State guard Cassius Winston got away from all of Duke's defenders, sprinted into the open court, and ran out the clock. There's no saying how the game would have turned out if Duke had been at the foul limit and been able to send Michigan State to the line. But they would have gotten a chance to get the ball back and tie or win the game, as most teams do in that scenario. Instead, Duke's sound defense ended up hurting them down the stretch. Duke is now likely to lose four starters to the NBA — Zion Williamson, Cam Reddish, Tre Jones, and Barrett. Meanwhile, Michigan State moves on with a group head coach Tom Izzo described as "warriors."