EAST LANSING, Mich. – After trailing by five points midway through the second half, No. 4 Duke rallied to defeat No. 7 Michigan State, 66-60, at the Breslin Center on Saturday, Dec. 6. The Blue Devils (10-0) picked up their fourth top-25 victory of the season, while handing the Spartans (8-1) their first loss of the year.
Cameron Boozer led the way for Duke, posting an 18-point, 15-rebound double-double, while also leading the team with five assists. Caleb Foster and Nikolas Khamenia also scored in double-figures, with Foster icing the game from beyond the arc en route to 12 points, while Khamenia finished one board shy of a double-double, scoring 10 points and reeling in a season-high nine caroms.
With the win, Duke earned its third consecutive top-25 win in as many games, the first time in program history the Blue Devils have picked up three ranked non-conference wins in a row.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Duke forced a defensive stop on the first possession of the afternoon and Nikolas Khamenia followed up with a corner three-pointer for the first points of the contest. The Blue Devils held the Spartans scoreless for nearly three minutes, before a fast-break dunk put Michigan State on the board with 17:30 on the clock.
- An alley-oop dunk by Maliq Brown, followed by a triple from Isaiah Evans, gave Duke a six-point lead, 10-4, after five minutes of action. Additional makes from beyond the arc, from Dame Sarr and Khamenia, helped Duke remain in front, 16-11, at the under-12 media timeout.
- The two teams traded trifectas across the next four minutes, and the Blue Devils continued to lead, 19-17, at the next media break.
- Michigan State opened up a lead as large as five, 28-23, courtesy of an eight-point run before a fast-break layup by Cayden Boozer snapped the streak. Duke’s defense held Michigan State to just 1-of-6 from the field across the final four minutes of the first half and went into the break trailing by, 34-31.
- Both defenses held strong in the early going of the second half, with Duke’s second made shot of the frame coming from Caleb Foster at the 16:24 mark, tying the game at 36-36. Cameron Boozer put Duke back in front, 38-37, finishing a layup through contact.
- Consecutive corner three-pointers by the Spartans put the hosts back in front, 45-40, leading to a Duke timeout with 12:43 on the clock. Boozer promptly scored five unanswered, knotting the score at 45.
- With Michigan State leading, 51-48, Duke scored seven of the next nine points, capped by an three-pointer from Evans, to take a 55-53 advantage into the final media break of the game.
- Two free throw from Boozer edged Duke into the lead, 57-55. Following a defensive stop, Evans was fouled on a three-pointer and calmly sank all three from the charity stripe, increasing the margin to five, 60-55, with less than a minute remaining.
- Duke iced the game from the charity stripe, with Foster and Ngongba closing out the 66-60 victory.
NOTES
- The victory marked head coach Jon Scheyer’s 99th with the Blue Devils.
- Duke’s 10-0 start is the best open to a season under Scheyer.
- The 10 wins are the most to begin a season since the 2017-18 squad started the campaign with 11 consecutive victories.
- The Blue Devils are tied for second-longest active win streak, trailing only Nebraska (12).
- The Blue Devils have now secured four victories over top-25 opponents this season, including wins against No. 22 Arkansas, No. 24 Kansas and No. 15 Florida.
- Duke’s four ranked non-conference wins are the most in a regular season since Duke registered five during the 1991-92 season.
- For just the second time in program history, the Blue Devils have defeated three nationally ranked teams in a three-game span during the regular season.
- It is the first time in program history Duke has done so against non-conference ranked opponents.
- The only other Duke team to accomplish this feat was the 2015-16 squad, with wins over No. 13 Louisville, No. 7 Virginia and No. 5 North Carolina from Feb. 8-17, 2016.
- Saturday was the 20th meeting between the two teams.
- Duke is 16-4 in the all-time series against Michigan State, including wins in 11 of the last 13 meetings since 2010.
- Saturday was the ninth meeting between Duke and Michigan State with both teams ranked inside the top 10.
- The Blue Devils are 7-2 in those games against the Spartans and 114-82 all-time in top-10 matchups.
- Duke has won eight of their last 11 true road games against top-10 hosts.
- Duke has won all three of its road clashes with Michigan State and is the only team to play multiple games at Michigan State and emerge without a loss.
- Saturday’s 66-60 win joins an 87-75 victory on Dec. 2, 2019, and a 72-50 triumph on Dec. 3, 2003.
- Duke is 17-5 when playing on Dec. 6.
- When playing on this date, the Blue Devils have won three straight and eight of the last nine games.
- The Blue Devils entered the game ranked second in the nation for field goal percentage defense (.344).
- Duke held Michigan State to 21-of-66 (.318) shooting from the field, its lowest shooting percentage of the season.
- Duke has held eight of its opponents under 40% shooting from the field.
- Both teams began the contest ranked inside the top six nationally for scoring defense, with Duke tabbed fourth (59.6) and Michigan State at sixth (60.4).
- Duke’s defense held Michigan State to 60 points, a new season low for the Spartans. The Spartans began the contest averaging 78.6 points per game.
- The Blue Devils have held each opponent this season under their respective scoring average.
- Duke finished with a 43-42 edge on the boards.
- The Blue Devils out-rebounded the Spartans, who began the game with the fourth-best rebounding margin (+13.5) in the country.
- Duke trailed at halftime (34-31) for just the second time this season.
- The Blue Devils had also trailed at the break against Texas (33-32) on Nov. 4, giving the Blue Devils their largest comeback from a halftime deficit this season.
- All nine Blue Devils that played contributed in the scoring column before intermission.
- Cameron Boozer posted an 18-point, 15-rebound double-double, while dishing a team-high five assists.
- Boozer scored 16 points in the second half, and his 15 total boards set a new game high by a Blue Devil in a game this season.
- Caleb Foster scored 12 points, including a key three-pointer late in the game to put Duke up by six with less than 20 seconds to play, and converted both ends of a one-and-one opportunity from the free-throw line with 10 seconds remaining.
- The junior added four rebounds and two assists.
- Nikolas Khamenia ended the game one rebound shy of a double-double, scoring 10 points and reeling in a season-best nine caroms.
- Khamenia made all three of his triples in the first half.
- Isaiah Evans chipped in nine points, including a three-pointer late in the second half that put Duke in front by multiple possessions.
- The sophomore also made all three free throws with 58 seconds left in the contest to push Duke’s lead to five points, 60-55.
QUOTES
- “That was a big-time basketball game. I’m still catching my breath. I just want to start off by saying how much respect our program, how much respect me personally, we have for Coach Izzo and his program. This is as good of an atmosphere as you’re going to get. I thought our guys handled it incredibly well for being on the road with a top-10 team. They have a great group, and they’re tough and together. I think some of the experiences we’ve had – playing at Tennessee in the exhibition game, playing at Army, some of these other games, I thought that prepared us a little bit better. But credit our guys, because we took a lot of punches throughout the game. Had to weather some foul trouble. Had to weather some plays that I didn’t think were characteristic, and a lot of it goes to the credit of Michigan State and their defense. They have as good of a defense as anybody. But at the end of the day, I thought the will from our guys to make one or two more plays, Cam [Boozer]. Isaiah [Evans] down the stretch. I thought Nik [Khamenia] and Dame [Sarr] made some big-time plays throughout. And then Caleb [Foster], the clutch shot he hit on the wing, clutch finishes. I’m just really proud. This is a difficult place to play. Ten games in, we get a little bit of a pause. We’ll learn, grow and see how we can continue to get better. Because we don’t want this to be the peak of our season. We’ve got a lot we want to play for still.” – Duke head coach Jon Scheyer
- “All of these games, we’ve had to battle through some adversity. All the teams going on a run, being down, in an environment like this where the fans are crazy. We’ve been in a lot of different environments and our team is tough. We stay together. We stay composed. Doesn’t matter about all the rah-rah. Super proud of the guys. We’re going to keep building, keep getting better.” – Duke freshman forward Cameron Boozer on what the team has learned from games against ranked opponents
- “I think one of our biggest strengths on our team is our versatility and our length. Zone, it kind of messed them up because we were able to shrink the court. We knew that they wanted to get into the paint, they’re a paint team, so we were just trying to take that away from them and make them shoot tough outside shots.” – Duke junior guard Caleb Foster on switching to zone defense
UP NEXT
- No. 4 Duke (10-0) returns to action on Dec. 16, hosting Lipscomb at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
- Tip off is scheduled for 6 p.m., broadcast on ACC Network.
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