EAST LANSING, Mich. — Cameron Boozer could hardly walk on the Breslin Center floor before a cascade of boos battered him like the biting wind of a cold December Saturday. That crowd had braved the cold to line up hours before tip-off to watch Boozer and No. 4 Duke take on No. 7 Michigan State.

The crowd and Michigan State got its licks in on Boozer in the first half as he scored just two points, but he exploded for 16 in the second as his Blue Devils beat the Spartans, 66-60.

“I don't feel very good about what happened today,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. “I didn't like the way we did some things that are staples of our program.”

Izzo lambasted his team's free-throw cutouts, as well as other "effort related and intelligence related, not skill related" issues. Michigan State missed 10 layups and gave up 10 offensive rebounds in the game, including a few off poor free-throw cutouts. Details, frustrating ones, steered a close game in Duke’s direction.

So did Boozer. After a diminished impact in the first frame, Boozer finished the game with 18 points and 15 rebounds.

“We challenged him and all that, but he's the hardest on himself,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “And part of it was we have to do a better job getting him touches. And then part of it is he has to find his impact on the game. And he still rebounded in the first half, but offensively, he has to touch it, and we have to get good shots from it.”

The loss marked Izzo’s third loss to Duke on his own home court, joining December games in 2003 and 2019. He hasn’t beaten Duke under Scheyer, the other meeting in 2023 when a freshman Caleb Foster scored 18 off the bench. Now a junior, Foster had 12 Saturday to back up Boozer.

Boozer made the biggest impact for Duke, though, scoring the first 14 out of 15 points for the Blue Devils in the second half. Boozer’s only points of the first half came off a missed cutout on free throws, which put the ball in his hands for an easy put-back.

“It’s why we can't beat him,” Izzo said, referring to Scheyer. “He always has a superstar that he can go to.”

Center Carson Cooper — Boozer's matchup — led Michigan State (8-1, 1-0 Big Ten) with 16 points and 15 rebounds. Jaxon Kohler also had 14 points and Coen Carr added 10. Point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. tied a career high with 13 assists, though he shot 0 for 10 from the field, including an uncontested layup as time expired on the loss.

“We wanted to make life difficult for Fears, as much as possible,” Scheyer said. “Not because of his scoring, but just because of how much he creates for them.”

Michigan State had a 45-40 lead when Scheyer called an early timeout to keep the Spartans — and a raucous crowd — from pulling away after back-to-back 3s from freshman guard Jordan Scott, the second of which started with a through-the-legs pass by Cooper.

But it was Duke (10-0), particularly Boozer, who pulled away in that inflection point with a layup and a 3 to tie the game.

“I just didn't think we had ‘it’ in that little stretch,” Izzo said. “And that stretch when you're five up, if you get one more bucket. You know, the crowd really gets into it. And they were tired too.”

Tired, then wired. Duke pulled its first of three leads after Boozer’s run, the final of which came from a 3 by guard Isaiah Evans with 3:59 to play, a shot that hit over a falling Fears.

Michigan State had gone cold in this stretch, scoreless for nearly three minutes of clock time. It only had a pair of Cooper layups to show for its efforts against Duke’s switch to zone in the second half, for which it had no answers.

“We didn't make any shots when we needed, they made some big time shots,” Fears said, “and they came up with the 50/50 balls in big plays.”

Fears hit free throws with 1:59 to play, but Boozer hit two to start a 5-0 run, all at the foul line, that pulled away with the game. Michigan State tried to extend the game with free throws, but Fears and Cooper missed layups to draw no nearer than three points in the final minute.

Michigan State had played well in the first half. After Duke hit four of its first eight 3s to take a 16-11 lead, it fizzled for just one make on its next 10 3-pointers by halftime. Two came from Nikolas Khamenia (10 points), playing on a sprained ankle from Tuesday’s game against Florida.

Kohler hit four 3s of his own in the first half to tie a career high, pacing the offense. But he also missed layups inside. He and Izzo weren’t happy with the performance as a whole.

“There was little things that make a big difference,” Kohler said. “You know, for me, there was a couple cutouts I didn't do a good enough job on that led to an extra possession for them.”

At shooting guard, Kur Teng took four of MSU’s first six shots and missed them all, finishing with five misses and no makes though he played well defensively to close out against Duke’s shooters.

Michigan State ended the first half up 34-31, with a 23-20 edge in rebounds. But Duke won the second half on the scoreboard (35-26) and the glass (24-20) to win the game. Duke shot 38.2% on 55 shots while Michigan State shot 31.8% on 66 shots.

After playing seven of its first nine games at home and two at neutral sites, Michigan State will play its first true road game of the season Dec. 13 at Penn State.

©2025 The Detroit News. Visit detroitnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.