Tuesday, November 18
New York, N.Y.
6:30 PM
Michigan State University
4-0,0-0Big Ten
83
vs
66
Kentucky
3-2,0-0SEC
1
2
F
Michigan St.
44
39
83
Kentucky
27
39
66
Photo by: Matthew Mitchell Photography
Balanced Effort Leads the Way as No. 17 Michigan State Topples No. 12 Kentucky, 83-66, in Champions Classic
11/18/2025 9:54:00 PM | Men's Basketball
NEW YORK – Senior forward Jaxon Kohler scored 20 points and No. 17 Michigan State opened up a 17-point halftime lead en route to an 83-66 win over No. 12 Kentucky in the Champions Classic on Tuesday night at The World's Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden.
Kohler hit 8-of-12 shots from the floor and a pair of 3-pointers for his first career 20-point game, while adding five rebounds and two assists.
Sophomore guard Kur Teng scored a career-high 15 points and senior guard Trey Fort added 13 points, while redshirt sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr. added eight points, six rebounds, a career-best 13 assists and three steals.
Records
Michigan State improves to 4-0 this season, while Kentucky falls to 3-2.
Recap
Michigan State returns home on Friday, Nov. 21, hosting Detroit Mercy at the Breslin Center. The game tips at 6:30 p.m. and will air live on BTN.
Kohler hit 8-of-12 shots from the floor and a pair of 3-pointers for his first career 20-point game, while adding five rebounds and two assists.
Sophomore guard Kur Teng scored a career-high 15 points and senior guard Trey Fort added 13 points, while redshirt sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr. added eight points, six rebounds, a career-best 13 assists and three steals.
Records
Michigan State improves to 4-0 this season, while Kentucky falls to 3-2.
Recap
- The Spartans led by 17 points at the break (44-27) and pushed the lead to 19 points, 50-31, on a Kohler layup at the 16:48 mark before Kentucky started to chip away.
- The Wildcats scored six-straight points to pull within 50-37 on a dunk from Mahommed Dioubate before the Spartans pushed it back to 19 points, 56-37, on a 3-pointer from Teng at 13:46.
- An 11-2 run from Kentucky narrowed the gap to 10 points, 58-48, on a dunk from Kam Williams and the lead was 60-50 after a layup from Jasper Johnson with 9:37 left.
- The Spartans responded, with redshirt freshman forward Jesse McCulloch hitting a trey, Teng hitting a jumper and Fears finding Kohler for a layup, pushing the lead back to 15 points, 67-52 (7:35).
- Leading 67-55, the Spartans used an 8-0 run over 1:48 and took a 20-point lead, 75-55, on a driving layup from freshman forward Cam Ward with 5:03 left.
- MSU took its biggest lead of the game, 80-56, when senior guard Denham Wojcik fed Ward for a dunk with 2:34 to play.
- Michigan State had jumped out to a 17-point lead at the break (44-27) thanks to a hot-shooting first half as the team connected on 51.5 percent of its field goals (17-of-33), including 53.8 percent (7-of-13) from 3-point land.
- The opening minutes of the game were back-and-forth, with two ties and seven lead changes over the first seven-plus minutes of the game.
- Kentucky's last lead of the game, 17-14, came on a dunk from Dioubate with 13:36 to play in the half.
- The Spartans used a 9-0 run to take a 23-17 lead on a jumper from Teng (10:21) and that was part of a 17-2 run capped by a 3-pointer from Fort (6:52), giving MSU a 31-19 lead.
- Teng hit an off-balance jumper with two seconds left to push the lead to 17 points, 44-27, at the half.
- Michigan State finished the game shooting 50.0 percent from the floor (32-of-64), including 50.0 percent from 3-point land (11-of-22).
- The Spartans out-rebounded Kentucky, 42-28, grabbed 10 offensive rebounds and scored 30 points in the paint.
- Michigan State handed out 25 assists on 32 made field goals, a 78.1 percent assist rate.
- MSU out-scored Kentucky, 16-8, on the fast break.
- The Spartans bench scored 34 points, led by Teng with 15 points.
- Michigan State has won four of the last six meetings with Kentucky and six of the last nine overall.
- Kentucky leads the head-to-head series, 14-13.
- The Spartans are 3-2 all-time against Kentucky in the Champions Classic, with wins in the last two meetings.
- MSU has an all-time record of 6-9 in the Champions Classic.
- The Spartans are 59-33 all-time against teams from the SEC.
- Izzo's career record improved to 741-302 in his 31st year at the helm of the MSU program.
- This was Izzo's sixth career win at Madison Square Garden and he has a career record of 6-13 at the World's Most Famous Arena.
- Michigan State sports information director Mex Carey has now worked 111 games at Madison Square Garden, with a 68-43 record spanning his career at St. John's, Georgetown and Michigan State (27 years).
- The Spartans have an all-time record of 163-47 in November.
- Head Coach Tom Izzo is 129-43 in the month of November.
- The win was Michigan State's 35th against a non-conference ranked opponent since 1995-96, the most wins by any Big Ten school.
- The Spartans scored a season-high 83 points.
- MSU shot a season-best 50.0 percent from the floor (32-of-64), including a season-high 50.0 percent (11-of-22) from 3-point land.
- The Spartans hit a season-high 11 3-pointers, the most since hitting 11 at Minnesota on Dec. 4, 2024.
- This was the first time MSU had hit at least 50.0 percent of its 3-point attempts since that Minnesota game (minimum 10 makes).
- MSU controlled the battle of the boards (42-28) for the fourth-straight game.
- MSU limited Kentucky to just 35.1 percent shooting from the floor, the third-straight opponent to shoot below 40 percent.
- Senior forward Jaxon Kohler scored a game-high 20 points, grabbing five rebounds and handing out two assists.
- This was his first career game with at least 20 points.
- He has scored in double figures four times this year and 16 for his career.
- It was the third time this season he has led the team in scoring and the sixth of his career.
- Redshirt sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr. finished with eight points six rebounds, a career-high 13 assists and two steals.
- This was the second time this season Fears has handed out at least 10 assists and the fourth of his career.
- He has led the team in assists four times this year and 26 for his career.
- Fears' 13 assists were the most by an MSU player since A.J. Hoggard handed out 14 against Nebraska on Feb. 28, 2023.
- Sophomore guard Kur Teng scored a career-high 15 points, knocking down a career-best three shots from 3-point land.
- This was his second career game in double figures.
- Senior guard Trey Fort scored a Michigan State career-best 13 points, his first game in double figures this season.
- He has scored in double figures 28 times during his career.
- Three players – Coen Carr, Carson Cooper and Fears – each grabbed six rebounds to lead the Spartans.
- This was the third career time leading the team in rebounds for Carr, the 17th for Cooper and the second for Fears.
Michigan State returns home on Friday, Nov. 21, hosting Detroit Mercy at the Breslin Center. The game tips at 6:30 p.m. and will air live on BTN.
Team Stats
MSU
UK
FG%
.500
.351
3FG%
.500
.233
FT%
.800
.864
RB
42
28
TO
13
9
STL
5
7
Game Leaders
Pts
20
FGM
8
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
8
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Players Mentioned
C
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
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