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| Detroit Free Press
Tom Izzo: No asterisk next to Michigan State’s first win at Duke
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo’s first victory at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium on December 1, 2020 is the Spartans’ second victory over Coach K’s team in 20 months.
Tom Izzo wished there were people out there to see his first victory at Duke.
The Cameron Crazies. Michigan State fans. Heck, he even lamented the missing media.
But …
“I know one thing,” Izzo said Tuesday night from Durham, North Carolina, “I’m not going to put that as an asterisk.”
For the second time in 20 months, Izzo and the Spartans have done what had seemed impossible for so long: beat Mike Krzyzewski and Duke. This time, for the first time in four trials, at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The No.12 MSU rode his waves of mistakes and great runs, used a lockdown defense and a balanced score, then withstood a late flurry from the Eighth Blue Devils to come out of the Champions Classic with a 75-69 victory.
[ Windsor: MSU just beat Duke without scratching surface of its potential ]
Izzo is 3-12 against Krzyzewski, as MSU (3-0) notched their first victory against Duke (1-1) in four games in the Champions Classic.
The Spartans return home knowing they can compete with – and beat – any team in the country right now.
“I just asked my guys and the coaching staff to keep our cool. Everyone’s in a fight, ”said junior Aaron Henry, who scored 10 of his 14 points in the first half. “If you get hit the first two times, you have to know how to react. This is where the champions lie. All players and teams are affected, but that’s how you react and how you support each other in combat. And I felt we had done a good job in that regard.
Rocket Watts scored 20 points and Henry played a versatile game with five assists, five rebounds, three steals and MSU’s three blocks to make up for his 7 of 21 shooting nights. Sophomore Julius Marble had 12 points in 12 minutes on 5 of 5 shots, and Joey Hauser and Malik Hall each had a double-double combining for 21 points and 20 rebounds.
MSU got off to a slow start to put a defensive stranglehold on the Blue Devils. The length and athleticism of the defending Spartans bothered Duke all night, especially on the perimeter. The Spartans forced 12 turnovers with six interceptions and won the rebound battle, 46-40. They kept Duke 5 of 23 3-point range shots and 20 of 62 (32.3%) overall.
[ Michigan State basketball greats, fans celebrate impressive win over Duke ]
“Hopefully this will give some of our guys the confidence to know that at the moment we are making a statement: our defense is on the move,” Izzo said. “I don’t think we were as good as we were for 30 minutes of that Notre Dame game. It was a harder team to cover – they have quick guards, their big guys can shoot 3s. … We had to play basketball as a team, we had to narrow the pitch.
This defense was one of the main reasons Watts made his first start of the season. The sophomore took over from Foster Loyer at point guard and went 7 of 16 despite some out-of-control play early on.
The Spartans opened slowly and carelessly, missing seven of their first eight shots and returning the ball three times as Duke led 13-3. However, seven of the Blue Devils’ points came on the free throw line as MSU committed five faults in the first 4:20.
But ironically, on many levels, it was Loyer’s defense on the bench by taking charges on Duke’s back-to-back possessions that shifted the momentum. The Spartans then slowly started scoring, particularly after Malik Hall made a layup to cut the deficit to three points and took a bad fall after being pushed back in the back by Duke’s Joey Baker, who was called for a flagrant foul.
From that point on, MSU made 10 of 16 shots to close the half.
“At first we just kept taking bad punches and forcing things,” Marble said. “The coach told us to go to the basket and execute our attack and everything. So that’s what we did.
Trailing 25-18, the Spartans went on a 19-6 run with Watts hitting a pair of jumpers to start it, and Rent’s 3-point pointer tying the game at 29. The movement layout of Marble’s rotation gave them their first lead, then his deep corner jumper after two Hall free throws and a jumper Henry gave MSU a lead he wouldn’t give up.
“They are able to play at a consistently high level because of their experience and their depth is better than we are now,” said Krzyzewski. “We played better than the score for the first 15 minutes, and there was no separation. That our intensity had created. This is the first time we’ve played a game like this. isn’t the first time these guys have played a game like this, so they took advantage of it. ”
Coming out of halftime with a 37-33 lead, the Spartans took the lead with a 17-5 flurry and built a 16-point cushion with more than 12 minutes left.
Duke, who was 1 of 15 from beyond the arc when MSU had their big lead, chipped off and eventually reduced it to eight on a 3 pointer from Jeremy Roach with 36.3 seconds left and a 3 in bank of Matthew Hurt with 21 seconds remaining. Henry was called up to travel with 19.2 seconds left and fouled with 17.9 remaining after which Jalen Johnson made 1 of 2 free throws.
Hall and Watts both hit a pair of free throws to seal the win, giving Izzo and the Spartans a trademark victory as they return home to host Detroit Mercy at 5 p.m. Friday at the Breslin Center.
[ MSU’s dominant showing vs. Notre Dame a sign of Spartans’ elite potential ]
“Don’t get me wrong, I would rather win than lose,” Izzo said. “I’m going to tell you something – I’m going to learn a lot on the way back on that plane, because we made so many mistakes tonight. And I’m sure they did too, but we made a lot of mistakes. But it’s much easier as a coach to learn with a win under your belt.
“I’ve played a lot of these games, and it might sound like I accepted, ‘OK, we’ve been beaten, but we’re going to get better.’ I prefer to win some of them early and improve as well.
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him on twitter @chrissolari. Learn more about the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.
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