Last Wednesday, freshman Kyrie Irving scored 31 points in Duke’s 74-69 win against No. 6 Michigan State in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The defending national champion Blue Devils built up a four point halftime lead and held off a late surge by the Spartans. The No.1 team in the nation sealed the win by going 7-for-8 in free throws in the final minute.

Irving was efficient with his 31 points, going 8-for-12 from the field and 13-for-16 from the free throw line.

The Blue Devils (8-0) also received contributions from senior leaders Nolan Smith (17 points) and Kyle Singler (15 points). Sophomore Mason Plumlee also chipped in 10 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double.

The Spartans (6-2) got a lift off of their bench thanks to Korie Lucious who scored 20 points and knocked down four 3s, but could not overcome their 20 turnovers. Draymond Green had 16 points, while Kalin Lucas added 14 points and Durrell Summers scored 10 points.

The non-conference matchup was part of the annual ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

Later in the week, Duke won a rematch of last year’s national championship game against Butler 82-70.

The Blue Devils will host Bradley and Saint Louis this week.

Kansas extends win streak

Kansas extended its home-court winning streak to 64 games at Phog Allen Fieldhouse in controversial style on Thursday night.
Mario Little hit a free throw to break a 76-point tie with 0.7 seconds remaining to defeat UCLA, 77-76.

UCLA’s Tyler Honeycutt (33 points, nine rebounds) drained a long 3-pointer with five seconds remaining to knot the score at 76. The Jayhawks (7-0) quickly raced the ball up the floor, and Bruins guard Malcolm Lee was called for a foul when he bumped into Little.
Little sunk the first free throw then missed the second, but Honeycutt’s full court heave was too short as the buzzer sounded.

Tyshawn Tylor and Tyrel Reed each scored 17 points and led the Jayhawks to victory. Marcus Morris also contributed 16 points. The Jayhawks allowed the Bruins (3-4) to stick around in large part because of their 54 percent shooting from the free throw line.

Freshman Joshua Smith came off the bench to score 17 points and collect 13 rebounds, while Lazeric Jones tallied 11 points to pace UCLA, which has lost four games in a row.

Georgetown upsets Missouri

No. 14 Georgetown needed a 3-point onslaught in overtime by Jason Clark to defeat No. 8 Missouri, 111-102, in Kansas City.

Clark (26 points) shrugged off a poor shooting performance in regulation and nailed a triplet of 3’s in the five-minute overtime, where the Hoyas (8-0) outscored the Tigers (6-1), by nine points.
GW forced overtime when Chris Wright (21 points, 10 assists) hit a 3-pointer as time expired to tie the score at 94.

The Hoyas scorched the nets from long range, making 15 3-pointers, six of them coming from Austin Freeman. Freeman poured in 31 points to lead all scorers. Henry Sims came off the bench to pitch in 10 points.

Missouri saw all five starters reach double-figures with Marcus Denmon leading the way with 27 points on five 3’s. Ricardo Ratliffe (22 points), Michael Dixon (17 points), Kim English (11 points) and Laurence Bowers (10 points) rounded up the scoring for the Tigers.

The Tigers failed to wrap the game up when given the opportunity. With 19 seconds left Bowers missed a pair of free throws, then five seconds later Dixon missed one of two free throws to open the door for Wright’s game tying 3-point basket.

Jackson Alexander can be reached at [email protected].