James Madison delivered an early upset on the primary day of the 2023-24 season by knocking off No. 4 Michigan State 79-76 in additional time on Monday in East Lansing, Michigan. The victory vs. MSU is simply the second High 25 win in program historical past after knocking off then-No. 19 Cal on Dec. 29, 1992.
JMU ahead Raekwon Horton knocked down a 3-pointer with 8.6 seconds left in additional time and T.J. Bickerstaff knocked down one among his two free throws on the next possession to seal the win.
Bickerstaff hit a brief jumper with 30 seconds remaining in regulation to power additional time. Bickerstaff completed with 21 factors and Terrence Edwards Jr. scored a team-high 24 factors.
The Dukes have been in a position to maintain off a star efficiency from MSU guard Tyson Walker, who scored a game-high 35 factors. Walker had the ball stolen close to the 3-point line on the finish of regulation. Michigan State completed the sport 1 of 20 from deep.
JMU completed final season 22-1, falling to South Alabama within the semifinals Solar Belt Convention Event to finish its season.
Michigan State hosts Southern Indiana on Thursday earlier than dealing with No. 2 Duke on Nov. 14 within the Champions Traditional. As for JMU, it’ll look to construct off its upset win over the Spartans towards Kent State on Thursday.
Uncharted territory for Tom Izzo
The final time an AP top-five group misplaced their season-opener towards an unranked opponent was you guessed it… Michigan State in 2005. In that season, the Spartans misplaced their opening sport towards Hawaii and Monday marked Izzo’s first November dwelling loss at Michigan State in his 29-year teaching profession. The final time the Spartans misplaced a house sport in November was in 1986. The Spartans have performed most of their marquee nonconference video games at impartial websites, however nonetheless, an unimaginable streak got here to an in depth with the loss to the Dukes.
Walker was superior, however Sparty wants extra
Walker isn’t solely one of many high scorers within the nation, however he additionally so occurs to be one of the clutch gamers in America. Walker made a layup with 1:26 left in regulation to offer his group a four-point benefit, however they could not shut it out. Walker was one among solely two MSU gamers (Coen Carr) who scored in double figures. MSU missed 19 of 20 3-point makes an attempt and different skilled gamers reminiscent of Malik Corridor, Mady Sissoko, Jaden Akins and AJ Hoggard did not contribute sufficient on the offensive finish to assist Walker.
MSU has a singular mix of expertise and veteran management that ought to permit them to win these sort of video games in blowout trend. That actually wasn’t the case on Monday. Taking pictures 5% from past the arc is not going to win MSU many video games when the gauntlet of the schedule begins.
