Experienced Triumph Over Youth In Battle Of Top Ranked Teams.
CHICAGO (Sporting Alert, Box Score) — Keith Appling scored 22 points and Gary Harris finished with 20 and No. 2 Michigan State beat the No. 1 ranked Kentucky 78-74 at United Center in college basketball action Tuesday night.
Appling also finished the game with seven rebounds, seven assists and four steals in the victory, while Adreian Payne added 15 points for the Spartans (2-0), who had raced off to a 10-0 lead to start the contest.
Julius Randle led all scorers with 27 points and 13 rebounds in a losing effort for the Kentucky Wildcats, which fell to 2-1 on the season after paying the price for turning the ball over 17 times.
Kentucky found themselves down 15 points in the second half and fought massively hard to tie the game at 66-66, but a quick three-pointer by Appling and a layup by Harris after he made a steal, put the second-ranked Michigan outfits back up by five.
In the end the deficit was too much for the Wildcats after Branden Dawson put back a miss attempt with less than six seconds left.
It was the earliest matchup between a 1-2 ranked team, and the first since February 2008.
