Michigan State men's basketball suffers first loss of the season to Duke, falling 66-60

A season low in shooting percentage from the field ensured No. 7 Michigan State suffered its first loss of the season when No. 4 Duke visited the Breslin Center on Saturday. The game marked the end of a home-and-home series struck back in 2020 as part of the Champions Classic that year impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic where MSU visited Cameron Indoor Stadium and downed Duke 75-69, but on this visit to East Lansing it was MSU who fell 66-60, dropping to 8-1 on the season and 1-0 in Big Ten play.

After averaging 47.6% from the field against ranked opponents Arkansas, Kentucky, and North Carolina, the Spartans shot just 31.8% against the Blue Devils. Despite giving up just five turnovers on the afternoon and winning the offensive boards in a narrowly contested battle, 13-10, the Spartans remain winless at the Breslin Center against Duke, the lone program to hold that distinction over MSU.

Carson Cooper led MSU with a double-double, scoring 16 and grabbing just as many rebounds. Jaxon Kohler added 14 points, including going 4-for-6 from 3-point range, and Coen Carr added 10 points on 4-for-13 shooting from the field to round out Spartans in double-figures. Jeremy Fears Jr. added 13 assists alongside two steals and six points, all of which came from a perfect day at the free throw line. Fears ended the day 0-for-10 from the field, though.

Duke's Cameron Boozer led all scorers on the day with 18, notching a double-double with 15 rebounds all before fouling out of the game. Caleb Foster added 12 points and Nikol Khamenia scored 10, falling just shy of joining Boozer in a double-double performance with only nine boards.

First Half

The Spartans fell behind early as they missed their first three shots and turned it over on two other of the first five offensive possessions. The Blue Devils also struggled to take advantage of MSU's missteps, leading by a narrow 5-2 at the first media break with 15:55 left in the first half.

Carr came up with a big block and Cooper was the lone scorer for MSU during that stretch with a highlight worthy slam.

Those dunks didn't slow down in the next stretch as Carr got his first of the game to trim the Spartans' deficit to three, trailing 10-7 at the 14:03 mark.

Duke answered right back with a trey from Dame Sarr, tying the Blue Devils largest lead of the game early in the action at six. Back-to-back buckets from MSU cut it back to two as Trey Fort added his own dunk on an alley-oop from Fears and then Carr got the fast break layup off a bad Duke pass to make it 13-11.

Another 3-pointer from Duke would bring the score to 16-11 at the next media break with 11:31 left on the clock for the first half.

Turnovers and missed shots plagued both teams down the next stretch, but MSU came out on top with two 3-pointers to Duke's one, making it 19-17 at the 7:50 mark for the media timeout. Coming out of the break, a trey from Kohler got MSU its first lead of the day, up 20-19.

The Spartans would fall back again but tie it up at 23 thanks to a trey from Kohler with 6:36 left. Another trey, this one a second-chance score off a Duke turnover, from Jesse McCulloch gave the Spartans a 26-23 lead just before the final media break of the half with 4:30 on the clock. MSU kept the lead from there through the final buzzer at halftime.

The Spartans took a narrow 34-31 lead into the locker room. Kohler was the only scorer in double figures for either team, posting 12 of his 14 total points on the day in the first half, all coming from 3-point range.

Second Half

Michigan State got out to a hot start for the fans with an immediate alley-oop by Carson. Duke managed to fight back and tie it up at 36 by the first media break, though, with 16:24 left in the game.

The game was a back-and-forth battle with five lead changes down the next stretch, but the Spartans pulled out a narrow 45-40 lead thanks to a trey by Jordan Scott with 12:53 left on the clock on an absolutely gorgeous set of passes across the floor to set him up on the highlight below. Duke called a timeout just 10 seconds later which was then transitioned to another media ad break as well.

Missed shots continued to plague both teams as neither could pull away from the other down the stretch. While MSU still had a highlight here and there like a Cooper dunk with 5:40 left to give MSU a 53-51 lead that helped energize the fans, and new head football coach Pat Fitzgerald at one point got on the mic to encourage non-Izzone seated fans to join in the noise making, it was MSU that faltered in the final minutes.

After Fears tied the game up at 55 on a pair of free throws with 1:59 left, Boozer took the lead back with his own shots from the line. A missed shot by Fears on the next offensive possession allowed Isaiah Evans to draw the foul for Duke on an attempt from beyond the arc. He hit all three shots which effectively iced the game for Duke as MSU couldn't hit enough shots to answer and force overtime or gain the lead back.

The Spartans are off this week for a finals break before resuming Big Ten play next Saturday, Dec. 13. MSU will take on Penn State in Happy Valley at Noon Eastern Time on the Big Ten Network.