Three was the lucky number of the night for the #13 Michigan State Spartans as they cruised past Purdue, 94-79, taking a half-game lead over Michigan in the Big Ten with the win.The Spartans rained down a school record 17 three-pointers, six of them coming off the hands of Gary Harris, who was 7-for-11 overall and 6-for-9 from beyond the arc, scoring a game-high 25 points, with three rebounds, three assists and three steals.
22-5 Michigan State holds an 11-3 mark in the conference, just ahead of 10-3 Michigan, with just four more games on the regular season slate for the Spartans, including a Sunday showdown at high noon in Ann Arbor with the Wolverines.
Elsewhere, the ACC got a lot more interesting as unranked North Carolina dropped #5 Duke, 74-66. Duke hosts #1 Syracuse on Saturday, at 7:00 pm ET, seeking to avenge their overtime loss at the Carrier Dome earlier in the season. The Orange are coming off their first loss of the season, taken Wednesday at home, when they fell, in OT, to Boston College, 62-59.
