No Great recovery:State falls to Duke

Duke (6-1) had lost the No. 1 ranking it held since the preseason poll when it fell to No. 6 Cincinnati 77-75 in the championship game of the Great Alaska Shootout on Saturday night.

Michigan State (4-2) had the tough task of trying to make it a two-game losing streak for the Blue Devils, and it was the start that did in the Spartans, who did get as close as three points in the second half.

Langdon finished with 23 points, while William Avery had 14 and Chris Carrawell and Elton Brand added 12 each for Duke.

Junior forward Morris Peterson had a career-high in points for the second straight game, finishing with 24, three more than he had against Western Michigan. Preseason All-American Mateen Cleaves finished with nine points on 3-for-17 shooting.

AP PHOTO Duke's Chris Carrawell tries to get a shot off despite pressure from Michigan State's Antonio Smith in the first half last night.

Duke's start couldn't have been much more impressive on both the offensive and defensive ends. The Blue Devils scored the game's first 13 points and Michigan State had to call a timeout just 3:08 into the game.

After a Michigan State basket, Langdon canned a 3-pointer while being fouled. He made the free throw, and the Blue Devils led 17-2.

Duke had a 17-point lead three times in the opening nine minutes, the last time at 26-9 on a turnaround jumper by Brand with 11:01 to play.

The Spartans, who missed eight of their first 10 shots and had six turnovers in the opening 7:50, picked up the defense and finally made some shots and were within 36-30 with 53 seconds left on a 3-pointer by Cleaves - just his second field goal of the game.

Langdon was 6-for-6 from the field, including four 3-pointers, in scoring 17 first-half points as Duke shot 70 percent from the field (14-for-20).

Michigan State trailed 56-47 with 11:41 left when it went on an 8-2 run to get within 58-55 on a rebound basket by Jason Klein with 6:12 to play.

Avery, the MVP of the Great Alaska Shootout, hit a long 3-pointer after an offensive rebound a minute later that started a 6-0 run that gave the Blue Devils a 64-55 lead.

The Spartans did get as close as five points twice the rest of the way, but the Blue Devils went 7-of-10 from the foul line over the final 90 seconds to seal the win.

The Blue Devils have not lost consecutive games since early March 1997 and have not lost two straight non-conference games since Dec. 6 and 9, 1989, when they were beaten by Syracuse and Michigan.

Michigan State has lost four of its past five games against top 10 competition, with the lone win coming in last year's NCAA Tournament against No. 8 Princeton.

The Spartans lost their next game to fourth-ranked North Carolina and were eliminated from the tourney. It was their second loss to a top 10 squad in March 1998 - they were beaten by Purdue in a regular-season game just weeks earlier.

12-03-98