It was happening again. Despite a good start and the look that they could actually play with them, it was starting to happen, the same way it always seems to. The Spartans went from a 21-18 lead at the under-eight T.V. timeout to down 30-21 just over two minutes later. It was happening again.
The Blue Devils started to make shots, led by their freshman trio of Williamson, Barrett, and Reddish. Those three erased the lead and went on a run in a hurry to put Duke up nine, the largest deficit for MSU in the tournament. The number one overall seed had put the clamps on MSU defensively, and started to find their rhythm on offense and was starting to pull away.