DENVER — All this talk about brawn and brute force gets old. Drew Neitzel and Kalin Lucas let everyone know these Michigan State guys can dribble and shoot it, too.

The Spartans guards went on a late ballhandling and scoring spree to help Michigan State pull away from Pittsburgh for a 65-54 victory Saturday night in the South Regional.

Lucas and Neitzel combined for 21 of the final 25 points for the fifth-seeded Spartans to help them win a battle of the bullies — a rough-and-tumble game between two Rust Belt teams who brought their show to the Rocky Mountains.

Neitzel led the Spartans with 21 points, and Lucas finished with 19.

Levance Fields had 19 points for fourth-seeded Pitt (27-10), which had won six straight.

Leading by one, Neitzel scored eight straight points — including an amazing shake-and-bake move to get shooting room in front of Ronald Ramon — to give Michigan State (27-8) a five-point lead with 4 minutes left.

A bit later, Lucas drove to the basket for a layup, then the two combined when Neitzel picked up a loose ball and fed it ahead to Lucas for an uncontested layup — one of the very few easy scores in this hotly contested game — for a 59-50 lead.

On the next possession, as if to prove these guys really do make their living playing defense, the guards combined on the final blow. Neitzel reached in to redirect Fields — who found himself slamming directly into Lucas. The ref called a charge and, cruelly and almost appropriately, Fields found himself on the ground writhing in pain.