EAST LANSING, Mich. — From the opening festivities, Michigan State’s Saturday night bout with Arkansas had the feel of a heavyweight fight. Two ranked foes, the type of matchup seen more often in March than a cold Saturday in November.

It sure felt like March at Breslin Center, where Michigan State won a thriller against Arkansas, 69-66, in front of a rowdy crowd. Led by an 18-point double-double from freshman forward Cam Ward and 15 points from forward Coen Carr, the Spartans turned a halftime deficit into a signature victory two games into a young season.

Michigan State outscored Arkansas 33-27 in the second half and controlled the glass 44-33 in the game, with 19 of those coming on the offensive glass and 10 total coming from Ward. The Spartans shot 25 for 61 in the game, but just 1 for 14 on 3-pointers. Arkansas hit 22 of its 56 shots, 7 of 28 from deep.

Down 39-36 after halftime, No. 22 Michigan State (2-0) found a tone-setter when Carson Cooper slammed home an alley oop to open the half’s scoring after a few empty possessions from each side, the Michigan State center returning from first half foul trouble.

But a key teammate, Carr, soon found himself on the bench after picking up two fouls less than three minutes into the half. The second foul appeared to belong to forward Jaxon Kohler, who made contact with Darius Acuff Jr. on a shot. But the officials gave it to Carr, and his third foul of the game sent him to the bench.

Kohler made a few key plays to get Michigan State on a 7-1 run including an offensive rebound to feed Trey Fort for a second-chance 3 — the first make after eight misses by the Spartans — and a redirected layup to take a 45-42 lead with 16:27 to play. That caused Arkansas coach John Calipari to call a timeout looking to settle his team against a runaway crowd.

Michigan State stayed in control, banging away inside and getting to the line. Jordan Scott scored an easy layup off a feed from Kohler, and Ward hit both his free throws after missing both his foul shots in the first half. Both Ward and Scott cleaned up the glass, Ward getting within a rebound of a double-double, and Scott turning an offensive rebound on a Fort miss into a layup to go ahead 53-48.

Ward continued to lead the offense, spinning his way for a second-chance dunk after an offensive rebound from Fort. Without Carr, Ward continued to provide offense. And when Carr rejoined the court at 10:08, Michigan State kept its edge in the paint off the hand of Kohler.

Another lob for Cooper gave Michigan State a 59-53 edge with nine minutes to play that drew another timeout from Calipari. No. 14 Arkansas (1-1) didn’t score for a couple minutes, finally breaking the drought off the hand of D.J. Wagner with a 3. But Ward dunked home the answer, and Carr drew a standing ovation after a gritty offensive rebound.

Arkansas trimmed Michigan State’s lead to a single shot, 66-63, with less than four minutes to play as the Spartans’ offense went cold off a pair of missed 3s. A dunk from forward Noah Pringle made it a single point with 2:43 on the clock. Michigan State’s offense couldn’t finish 3-pointers as the offense slowed down, giving Arkansas a window to get close.

Pringle split free throws at one end after a lane violation wiped away a second miss, and Cooper split two of his own at the other end. Cooper blocked a shot by Acuff looking to take the lead before Kohler hauled in the rebound, up 67-66 with 1:04 to play, and Tom Izzo called timeout.

On the next possession, Michigan State cycled the ball around the perimeter as the shot clock wound down. As Fears launched a 3, he nudged into Acuff to draw a foul and hit two of his three free throws to take control, 69-66.

Arkansas looked to its own freshman, Thomas, to get the game tied with a 3, but his shot missed. On a second-chance try off an offensive board from Pringle, Thomas missed a floater and Scott hauled it in for Michigan State. With 15.9 seconds to play, he missed two free throws. Arkansas got another chance off an inbound play with 4.8 seconds to play as Michigan State called timeout.

On the inbound, Trevon Brazile fired a long 3 over Ward, but the freshman's outstretched hand forced an airball to seal the win.

Carr welcomed Arkansas to a rowdy Breslin Center with a dunk to open the scoring, but Arkansas sparked a 6-0 run to take the lead. Inside the paint, Michigan State’s rebounding looked sloppy, and Cooper took two fouls in the first four minutes that sat him the rest of the half.

Four and a half minutes in, Michigan State led 10-6 thanks to an 8-0 run that forced Calipari to call a timeout. It started with a bank shot from Fort, making his first start at shooting guard since transferring into Michigan State this season. A putback from Carr and a dunk by Ward, subbing in for Cooper, stretched the lead.

Arkansas freshman Meleek Thomas broke up the run, but Michigan State scored another four points from Carr, whose athleticism at both ends put the Spartans in control. With 11:12 left in the first half, Michigan State led 18-17, and the duo of Carr and Ward accounted for 14 of those points.

For Arkansas, guard D.J. Wagner scored seven straight points to stay within striking distance, including a corner 3 over MSU’s backup point guard Divine Ugochukwu. After the timeout, forward Billy Richmond finished off a layup to take the lead with 10:24 to play in the half. But two finishes by Ward, a layup off an inbound and one off a feed from Kohler, got the lead back 22-20 with 7:40 to play.

Richmond hit a 3 out of a timeout to once again give Arkansas the lead, one the teams traded 11 times before halftime. With 3:56 to play in the half, the game sat tied at 30 after a 3-pointer by Thomas. Forwards Karter Knox and Brazile sat on the bench with two fouls each, but Arkansas still found offense through a smaller lineup with Wagner, Acuff and Thomas leading the way.

Acuff hit a jumper with 2:24 to play that gave Arkansas a lead it kept into halftime, stretched to as much as five points but settling at 39-36 at the break. Kohler finished off his second of seven shots by cleaning up a miss from Jeremy Fears Jr., who missed all six of his first half shots.

Michigan State’s schedule lightens a bit next week, but only momentarily. San Jose State visits Breslin Center for Thursday’s 6:30 p.m. ET tip, but that’s followed by a bout with next Tuesday’s game against No. 9 Kentucky in the Champions Classic.

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