ATLANTA -- If ever there was a moment for the sometimes-surly Tom Izzo to show a softer side, Friday night was perfect.

Michigan State freshman Jase Richardson scored a team-high 20 points to lead the No. 2 Spartans to a 73-70 win over No. 6 Ole Miss in the NCAA Tournament South Region semifinals, and afterward, an emotional Izzo was mobbed by his team.

"I love these guys," Izzo said. "It's hard to believe that in two days we're playing for a chance to do one of the all-time great things in any basketball player's life, to play for a Final Four. I'm proud and happy for them. They've earned it. They deserved it. They did it."

Coen Carr added 15 points and Jaden Akins scored 13 for the Spartans (30-6), who are headed to the program's 15th Elite Eight, with an opportunity to reach their 11th Final Four and ninth under Izzo. Tre Holloman added 10 points off the bench for Michigan State, which rallied from a 10-point first-half deficit.

Sean Pedulla scored 24 points to lead Ole Miss (24-12), and Matthew Murrell added 13. Malik Dia chipped in with 11 points for the Rebels, who were playing in just their second Sweet 16.

Akins' hard-earned layup gave Michigan State a 65-63 edge with 1:29 remaining, and the Spartans doubled their lead on Carson Cooper's basket with 40 seconds left.

Pedulla hit a floater, but Akins answered with a pair of free throws. Pedulla's putback layup cut the Rebels' deficit to 69-67 with 13.9 seconds left, but Holloman knocked down four straight foul shots to seal the victory.

Izzo and company will face top-overall seed Auburn on Sunday for a chance to reach the Final Four.

"We don't put up banners for Elite Eights," Izzo said. "We put up banners for championships and Final Fours. The coaches I've got on my staff that have been to the Final Four have talked to the players. ... We've got to play better, but I'm so proud of them."

Michigan State hasn't reached college basketball's pinnacle since topping Florida for the national championship in 2000. An impressive freshman on that team was future NBA veteran Jason Richardson -- father of Friday's hero Jace.

"We always say we play better when we're having fun, but we know that you've got to come in with a mentality," Jase Richardson said. "We try to have as much fun as possible playing, but we've also got to be locked in because we've got to key into our defensive things, key into our offensive things."

The once-overlooked Spartans -- who didn't crack the AP Top 25 until Dec. 9 -- are playing in a regional final for the first time since 2019, when they beat Duke before falling to Texas Tech and current Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard in the Final Four.

Beard's Rebels matched the school's third-most wins in a season with 24. That didn't take away the sting of the loss, the coach said.

"Every season ends for every team with the feelings we have right now except for one," Beard said. "I've never been hit with this kind of emotion when a season ends, but I'm thankful for these guys. From a coaching standpoint, you don't want to get beat in your last game of the season, and I didn't think we did. I thought today we just ran out of time."

After trailing 29-19 in the first half, Michigan State clawed back to knot the score at 33 on Carr's layup to open the second.

A basket by Holloman later trimmed the Rebels' lead to 42-39, but Pedulla made a layup that prompted a 6-0 Ole Miss spurt.

From there, Carr's layup jump-started a 14-2 Michigan State run. Along the way, Cooper made two free throws with 7:50 left to give the Spartans their first lead.

Murrell's corner trey later gave Ole Miss a 58-57 advantage, but Carr's dunk to take back the lead was answered with Pedulla's fourth and final 3-pointer, putting the Rebels ahead 61-59 with 4:04 remaining.

Jeremy Fears Jr. then tied the score with a floater in the lane before Richardson's layup returned the lead to the Spartans with 3:04 left, before Ole Miss tied it again on Davon Barnes' free throws.

Pedulla's two 3-pointers and Jaylen Murray's trey gave the Rebels an early 18-11 advantage. The Spartans sliced their deficit to 22-19 on Frankie Fidler's three-point play and Carr's hook shot.

Murrell answered with five straight points, however, followed by Jaemyn Brakefield's layup, prompting a Michigan State timeout down 29-19 with 3:53 remaining.

After a 1-for-7 start, Michigan State connected on four of its final five triples of the opening half -- including consecutive makes by Richardson and Akins - pulling the Spartans to within 33-31 at halftime.

"We've got the best coaching staff in the country," Akins said. "They're going to have us ready to play. We're going to do a lot of walkthroughs and get ready for who we have to play. I'm going to tell the guys to go out there and play with no fear, and we're going to have no regrets. We're just going to play as hard as we can."

--Jack Batten, Field Level Media