Little Rock, AR -- (Sports Network) - Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts each scored 17 points to lead a balanced Memphis attack, and the top-seeded Tigers survived a late rally to edge Mississippi State, 77-74, in a second-round South Region game at the NCAA Tournament.

Joey Dorsey had 13 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks for Memphis (35-1), which will take on fifth-seeded Michigan State on Friday in Houston. Willie Kemp tallied 12 points for the Tigers, who advanced to the Sweet 16 for a third straight year.

"I felt we executed great down the stretch," Douglas-Roberts said. "Every game we played this year close, I think we did a great job of executing, and that's that it was tonight."

Jamont Gordon scored 21 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for Mississippi State (23-11), which nearly erased an eight-point deficit in the final minute. Ben Hansbrough contributed 19 points for the ninth-seeded Bulldogs, who also got 14 points and 10 boards from Charles Rhodes.

A huge reason why the Tigers won Sunday was their 19 offensive rebounds, leading to numerous second chances.

"That's the total difference in the game," Bulldogs coach Rick Stansbury said. "If you want to point to one thing and you can break down stats and you can chop up things and look for reasons here or there, but one thing you can point to -- I can point to rebounding always as an effort thing. But I can point to this one as giving up offensive rebounds. Again, 22 second-chance points and you lose by three, it ain't very hard to figure that out, just how important a stat that was in this game."

Two free throws from Shawn Taggart moved the Tigers to a 75-67 lead with 24.4 seconds left, but the Bulldogs rallied as Gordon hit a three, and Rhodes scored on a putback with 10 seconds left for a 75-72 difference.

Rose then hit 1-of-2 at the charity stripe before a Gordon layup had Mississippi State within two points with four seconds to go.

Douglas Roberts was only able to make 1-of-2 foul shots with 3.2 seconds left. Off the ensuing inbounds pass, the Bulldogs got the ball to Gordon, who crossed midcourt, but fumbled the dribble and was off the mark on a potential tying shot.

"In this type of tournament, nobody goes away, they're going to fight until the buzzer goes off," Memphis' Antonio Anderson said. "We knew that. Coach told us that before the game."

Ravern Johnson's three-pointer capped eight in a row for the Bulldogs, who surged to a 16-11 lead midway through the first half. Memphis rallied and went ahead 22-21 on a Dorsey jam. A three from Doneal Mack expanded the Memphis spread to 36-27 at the half.

The Tigers were up 40-27 following a dunk from Douglas-Roberts two minutes into the second half. The Bulldogs came back with the next seven points, though, before Memphis moved ahead again by double digits, this time 48-38. However, MSU roared back and tied the game at 52 following a three-point play from Jarvis Varnado inside of nine minutes to go.

Memphis asserted itself again, though, moving ahead 68-59, with Rose's jumper capping the flurry with nearly four minutes to go.

Game Notes

Varnado had 11 points and five blocks to finish the season in a tie atop the Southeastern Conference's all-time single-season block record with 157. He tied NBA All-Star Shaquille O'Neal for that honor...Both teams shot particularly well in the second half, with Memphis going 15-of-27 from the field, while MSU was 17-of-33...The Tigers were 15-of-32 from the foul line.