Michigan State hangs tough but falls at Duke, 78-69
DURHAM, N.C. – Tom Izzo wanted a bucket-list victory.
He once again saw both Michigan State’s potential and limitations. Of having an inexperienced but scrappy roster. Of being limited in size but long on talent.
Michigan State went toe-to-toe with Mike Krzyzewski and fourth-ranked Duke, but the Blue Devils used an 11-0 run midway through the second half to pull away to a 78-69 victory on Tuesday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“We’re still growing. We’re growing and we’ve seen a lot of good things,” junior Tum Tum Nairn said. “But we also can see the negative things we’re doing. We’ve gotta continue to grow until we can put 40 minutes together.”
Grayson Allen scored 24 points for Duke (7-1), including five in the game-changing, 2-plus-minute run that squelched any chance for an MSU upset, bringing to close out the Spartans’ eight-game, 22-day, 13,000-plus-mile first month of the season.
MSU (4-4) also committed 18 turnovers, which directly led to 19 Duke points.
“I thought we played probably 33, (34) of good basketball against a good team, especially on the road,” Izzo said after falling to 1-10 against Krzyzewski. “I should say great team, because I think he’s got a great team. You’re not beating them on the road if you don’t play all 40 minutes. And that has been a problem for us.”
Eron Harris led MSU with 14 points, Nick Ward added 11 and Kenny Goins had 10. The Blue Devils held Miles Bridges to 11 points and nine rebounds, but the Spartans freshman made just 4 of 13 shots, fouled out and vacillated between overexcited and frustrated for much of the night.
“We count bad shots as turnovers, too,” Bridges said. “We all took long shots and we had effortless turnovers.”
The Spartans opened the game by challenging Duke to run with them. The Blue Devils, conversely, opted to pound the ball into the paint against MSU’s thin front line.
Duke opened the game missing its first seven shots, with Nairn converting a backdoor lob from Goins for a layup, then driving for another bucket.
Jefferson started attacking in the paint, getting his first bucket on a layup. And MSU had few answers for the 6-foot-9 graduate student’s presence and size advantage in the post. Jefferson finished with 11 of his 17 points and seven of his 13 rebounds in the first half.
The Blue Devils took their first lead with a 7-0 run that included a 3-pointer from junior guard Allen, who was questionable to play with an aggravated toe injury and has not been practicing.
Jefferson’s putback layup with 38 seconds left put Duke up briefly, but Cassius Winston drove and scooped in a bucket of his own to send the game into halftime tied 35-35. It was a score that reflected how evenly-played the first 20 minutes were.
The two teams traded leads five times and were tied nine other instances. MSU was 16 of 31 from the field and grabbed 17 rebounds with eight turnovers. Duke was 15 of 33 with 16 boards and seven miscues.
“That was a hell of a game tonight,” Krzyzewski said. “Two great programs. We’re not the only two great programs, but two of them. And we expect something like this. Cameron was electric – it was so darned good. And both teams responded to it.”
After 26 minutes of back-and-forth basketball, Duke seized control by agitating the Spartans into 10 turnovers that resulted in 15 points.
Allen, after opening the game 2 of 10 from the field in the first half, hit a layup on an inbounds pass, drawing a foul on Bridges and completing the three-point play. Frank Jackson then drove the left side for back-to-back layups, after the second of which the Spartans coughed up the ball for the fifth time in a little more than seven minutes.
Luke Kennard buried a jumper, and all of a sudden, the Blue Devils had built a nine-point lead and forced Izzo to burn a timeout.
The Spartans pulled within six on a Matt McQuaid three-pointer, but Duke answered with a Jackson three-pointer to curtail any MSU momentum.
Kennard added 20 points for the Blue Devils. Duke freshmen Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum and Marques Bolden all sat out with injuries, and Krzyzewski used just six players all night.
The Spartans return home Saturday to face Oral Roberts (4:30 p.m./Big Ten Network) in the first of five straight games at Breslin Center. They don’t leave East Lansing again until opening Big Ten play at Minnesota on Dec. 27, then host Northwestern and Rutgers after that.
“I got great guys. I gotta do a better job coaching them,” Izzo said. “I gotta take more time to do more in practice and get some things set up a little bit better. I gotta do a better job there. And I think we have a chance to get a lot better.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.
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