It's been a fun few days for us Spartans.

Michigan State basketball essentially led wire-to-wire in a top five battle against No. 2 Duke, 79-73, making a case to be the No. 1 team next week. The Spartans never trailed in a defensive masterpiece to beat arguably the best team in the country in the Champions Classic.

Michigan State was stifling defensively in the first half, holding the Blue Devils to a shocking 25 points in the opening frame. The Spartans got 11 points from Cam Ward off the bench and five blocks from Jordan Scott in the first half to put Michigan State up 34-25 at the break.

Michigan State had a chance early in the second half to put this game away. Up 14 points, Scott missed an open three-pointer that would have buried the Blue Devils. Credit to Duke, they never went away, getting the game within five points in the final seconds, but ultimately, Michigan State was too much for Duke.

Jeremy Fears Jr. ended the night leading the Spartans in scoring with 18 points. He also had 11 assists to rack up another double-double. Ward followed behind Fears with 14 points as the next leading scorer.

Michigan State improves to 3-0 on the year with the win over Duke. Next up for the Spartans is a home game against Northern Iowa on Friday. That matchup between the Spartans and Panthers is set to tipoff at 7 p.m. ET and will be televised on FS1.