Saturday, November 8
East Lansing, Mich.
7 PM
Michigan State University
2-0,0-0Big Ten
69
vs
66
Arkansas
1-1,0-0SEC
1
2
F
Arkansas
39
27
66
Michigan St.
36
33
69
Photo by: Matthew Mitchell Photography
Spartans Stand Strong as No. 22 Michigan State Beats No. 14 Arkansas, 69-66, in Electric Night at the Breslin Center
11/8/2025 9:59:00 PM | Men's Basketball
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Freshman forward Cam Ward had a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds and three players scored in double figures as No. 22 Michigan State pulled away from No. 14 Arkansas in a 69-66 win at the Breslin Center on Saturday night.
Ward hit 8-of-13 shots from the floor and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds for his first career double-double, while junior forward Coen Carr had 15 points and seven rebounds, senior forward Jaxon Kohler had 10 points and seven rebounds and redshirt sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr. added four points, three rebound and nine assists.
Records
Michigan State improves to 2-0 this season, while Arkansas falls to 1-1.
Recap
Michigan State continues its season-opening homestand, hosting San Jose State on Thursday, Nov. 13 (BTN, 6:30 p.m.).
Ward hit 8-of-13 shots from the floor and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds for his first career double-double, while junior forward Coen Carr had 15 points and seven rebounds, senior forward Jaxon Kohler had 10 points and seven rebounds and redshirt sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr. added four points, three rebound and nine assists.
Records
Michigan State improves to 2-0 this season, while Arkansas falls to 1-1.
Recap
- Michigan State went into the half trailing 39-36 after a back-and-forth first half with four ties and 11 lead changes, but out-scored Arkansas, 9-3, over the first three-plus minutes of the second half and took a 45-42 lead when Fears fed Kohler for a layup with 16:28 on the clock.
- The Spartans would continue to lead throughout the majority of the second half, leading by five, 49-44, after free throws from senior center Carson Cooper at 14:35 and 51-46 after free throws from Ward at 13:31.
- The Razorbacks pulled to within 53-50, but the Spartans used an 8-3 run to take their biggest lead of the game, 61-53, on free throws from Carr with 7:06 to play.
- After a jumper from Cooper and 1-of-2 free throws from Carr gave MSU a 65-58 lead, the Razorbacks clawed back, tying the game at 66-all on a free throw from Nick Pringle with 1:41 left.
- Cooper hit 1-of-2 free throws with 1:21 on the clock and Fears hit 2-of-3 after being fouled taking a 3-pointer to give MSU a 69-66 lead.
- The Spartans missed two free throws with 15 seconds left and held off a pair of 3-point attempts by Arkansas to tie the game, holding on for the win.
- Arkansas went into the half with a 39-36 lead after a frenetic opening 20 minutes featuring four ties and 11 lead changes.
- The Razorbacks had an early 6-2 lead before MSU went on an 8-0 run over 1:46 and took a 10-6 lead when Kohler scored on a layup off a feed from Carr, forcing Arkansas to call timeout just over four minutes into the game.
- A layup from Ward, who scored 12 points in the first half, at 13:33 gave MSU its biggest lead of the half, 16-10.
- The Spartans went without a point for nearly three minutes and hit only one shot over eight attempts as the Razorbacks used a 10-4 run over 3:56 and took a 20-18 lead on a free throw from Pringle with 9:23 left before the break.
- Ward tied the game at 20-all on a layup with 8:49 left and there were two more ties eight lead changes in the final seven minutes, with the Spartans taking a 30-27 lead at 4:32 on free throws from Fears.
- Arkansas tied the game to 30-all on a 3-pointer from Meleek Thomas, then took a 33-32 lead on a layup from Acuff and extended it to 39-34 on a 3-pointer from Acuff with 34 seconds left.
- Kohler's basket at the buzzer cut the lead to 39-36 at the break.
- Michigan State had a 45-33 advantage in rebounding, grabbed 19 offensive rebounds and out-scored Arkansas, 46-28, in the paint.
- The Spartans handed out 18 assists on 25 made field goals.
- MSU held Arkansas to just 27 points in the second half as the Razorbacks shot 28.6 percent from the floor (8-of-28) and just 14.3 percent from 3-point land (2-of-14).
- The Spartans connected on 18-of-26 free throws (69.2 percent), including 7-of-8 from Carr.
- Michigan State's bench out-scored Arkansas, 26-20, with 24 of the 26 points coming from freshmen.
- Michigan State leads the all-time series with Arkansas, 3-0.
- MSU Head Coach Tom Izzo is 2-0 all-time against the Razorbacks.
- Izzo and Arkansas Head Coach John Calipari have met seven times during their careers, with Izzo holding a 4-3 edge in those meetings.
- The Spartans are 58-33 all-time against teams from the SEC.
- Izzo's career record improved to 739-302 at the start of his 31st season at the helm of the MSU program.
- The Spartans have an all-time record of 162-47 in November, including a 106-4 mark at the Breslin Center.
- Head Coach Tom Izzo is 84-1 all-time at home in November, 127-43 for the month overall.
- Freshman Cam Ward led MSU in scoring (18 points) and rebounds (10), picking up his first career double-double in just his second career game.
- Coen Carr scored 15 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had three assists.
- This was the 16th game in his career he reached double figures.
- Jaxon Kohler add 10 points and seven rebounds with three assists.
- Kohler has scored in double figures 14 times for his career.
- Jeremy Fears Jr. finished with just four points, but handed out a game-high nine assists and added three rebounds.
- Carson Cooper was limited to just three-plus minutes in the first half because of foul trouble and played more than 16 minutes in the second half, scoring nine points, with two rebounds, two assists, two blocked shots and one steal.
- Freshman forward Jordan Scott scored six points and grabbed seven rebounds in 25-plus minutes.
Michigan State continues its season-opening homestand, hosting San Jose State on Thursday, Nov. 13 (BTN, 6:30 p.m.).
Team Stats
AR
MSU
FG%
.393
.410
3FG%
.250
.071
FT%
.652
.692
RB
33
45
TO
14
14
STL
11
7
Game Leaders
Pts
10
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Pts
9
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
3
Players Mentioned
C
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
F
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