Champions Classic: No. 5 Michigan State Beats No. 2 Duke 79–73 Wire to Wire, and Kansas Routs Kentucky 89–69 in Chicago

CHICAGO — The opener was the game of the night, and it belonged to the lower seed that never played like one. No. 5 Michigan State beat No. 2 Duke 79–73 on Tuesday night at the United Center, leading 24–14 in the first half and 34–25 at the break, pushing the margin to 14 early in the second half, and never surrendering the lead on the way to 3–0. Jeremy Fears Jr. ran the night with 18 points and 11 assists; Cam Ward added 14 off the bench and Jasiah Jervis 10. Michigan State also avenged its home loss to Duke last December.

Duke's problem was arithmetic. The Blue Devils (2–1) shot 33.3% from the field (20-for-60) and 7-for-29 from three (24.1%), with John Blackwell's 17 points the high mark. The late run still came: Caleb Foster's two free throws cut it to 73–68 with 2:03 left. Jordan Scott answered with a layup, Fears made three of four free throws, and the margin was back to ten at 78–68 — the chase over in the time it takes to describe it.

The nightcap was decided earlier and by more. Kansas beat Kentucky 89–69, leading 46–36 at halftime and pushing the advantage past 20 with 15 minutes still to play. Tre White scored a career-high 30 points, Tyran Stokes added 23 points and 10 rebounds, and Trey Kaufman-Renn scored 12 as the Jayhawks (3–0) shot 46.4% and improved to 7–2 against Kentucky since the 2015–16 season — in a matchup of the two winningest programs in college basketball history, a 20-point neutral-court win is a statement with a long memory.

For the Metroplex reader, the Classic is the November measuring stick the local programs get graded against all winter: SMU and TCU both won at home on Tuesday night, and the gap between a home win in November and a wire-to-wire win over the No. 2 team in the country in Chicago is exactly the gap this doubleheader exists to measure.