Duke past Michigan State 78-69

Both teams are battle-tested and injury-riddled bringing challenges neither of their respected coaches want to endure.

Duke and Michigan State will square off for the sixth time in the last seven seasons on Tuesday when they meet at Cameron Indoor Stadium as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. He turned things around in the second half of that 77-75 loss, hitting the game-tying shot late.

Jones was the primary defender who frustrated Michigan State’s Miles Bridges into 4-of-13 shooting for 11 points – well below his 17.4 average. Duke still has plenty of risky players, with Luke Kennard (17.2 points, 6.7 rebounds, 3.9 assists) and Amile Jefferson (13.6 points, 9.4 rebounds) leading the way along with guard Frank Jackson – the one freshman who has seen the court enough to live up to his hype.

“It was obvious they were trying to wear us out”, Krzyzewski said. Perhaps Tatum and Bolden play in next Tuesday’s “neutral-court” game against Florida at Madison Square Garden, and Duke finally starts to look like the team we were promised all summer long. He is a big time player.

“I guess it didn’t work for them”, Jackson said. And with one final stretch, he reached the ball into the end zone for a touchdown with 27 seconds left that sent the Spartans past No. 4 Iowa 16-13 Saturday night in the Big Ten championship game. If there had been one recent thread in his inability to beat Duke, a drought that is now nearly 12 years, it was that so many of his veteran Michigan State teams were derailed by Duke’s very young, very raw talent.

The ACC/Big Ten Challenge headlines the week ahead for Top 25 teams. The Spartans left November 8 to fly to Hawaii to take on Arizona, then traveled to NY for a Champions Classic game with Kentucky.

Getting that first win in a hostile environment would be a big step for this Michigan State team. Bridges averaged 19.3 points, eight rebounds and two blocks per game in wins over St. John’s and Wichita State and a loss to Baylor last week.

Another Michigan State football streak was broken today.

The Blue Devils come in very thin and banged up. The Spartans fell out of the new Associated Press Top 25 rankings on Monday.

“They’re going to be hungry”, Duke guard Matt Jones said.

First, junior quarterback Damion Terry, who got his first career start back in his home state of Pennsylvania, missed on a third-and-goal pass to Donnie Corley.

It’ll go in the books as yet another Michigan State loss against Duke or Carolina, a hoodoo that’s starting to defy belief. Jefferson logged 35. Only sophomore center Chase Jeter came off the bench.

By the time Bridges got the ball in the lane and floated past Duke’s Amile Jefferson to attempt a reverse layup, Luke Kennard was there to knock the ball out of Bridges’ hands. Afterward, Izzo sounded nearly wistful as he looked over the Duke half of the box score, talking about Grayson Allen and Amile Jefferson and Jones. We need to shoot 32 percent and still win a game. It’s totally the opposite of what we thought we would have and hopefully it will be totally opposite of eventually what we do have.

Neither team led by more than four before the Blue Devils broke a 48-48 tie by reeling off 11 consecutive points, a run that coincided with a series of Spartan slaps to the floor – one of Duke’s trademark moves.