NEW YORK _ Kentucky's first big-stage game of the season contained a distinct Big Apple theme. If the Cats could make it there, they could make it anywhere.
A 69-48 victory over No. 13 Michigan State started spreading the news: Another freshman-dependent Kentucky team can compete.
Freshmen scored 43 of the points in a game Kentucky led for the final 33-plus minutes.
Malik Monk led the way with 23 points. He made seven 3-pointers, which was one shy of the most by any UK player in John Calipari's eight seasons as coach. Jamal Murray and Eric Bledsoe made eight in 2015-16 and 2009-10, respectively.
Monk's sizzling shooting perhaps put to rest another question lingering in the air: Can Kentucky shoot well enough from the perimeter in a season that figures to have many opponents sagging a defense into the lane and hoping?
In its first two games, Kentucky made only 9 of 34 3-point shots. Monk made only 3 of 12. He more than doubled his makes from beyond the arc against Michigan State.
Isaiah Briscoe added 21 points for Kentucky, while De'Aaron Fox chipped in 12.
Michigan State, which lost to Arizona in its opener, fell to 0-2. The Spartans' star freshman, Miles Bridges, scored six points.
The victory, which improved No. 2 Kentucky's record to 3-0, put into action the confident words the freshmen uttered last weekend.
"I think our team is ready to play anybody," Bam Adebayo said. "We have the heart. We have the guts."
For the second time in three games, foul trouble limited Adebayo's minutes and contributions. Rather than the reaching fouls that led to Adebayo playing only 15 minutes in the opener against Stephen F. Austin, this time the problems came on the offensive end. Adebayo picked up three fouls with Kentucky in possession of the ball and scored six points.
A Kentucky-Michigan State game carried cache. It was played in the gaudy-named Champions Classic in Madison Square Garden, also known in New York as "the world's most famous arena."
Fox all but shrugged at the prospect of playing in such a game. "I don't have anything circled on the calendar," he said last weekend.
Fox and his teammates backed it up.
UK's freshmen showed they belonged early and often in the first half. Led by Monk and Fox, freshmen scored 14 of the Cats' first 16 points.
By halftime, with Kentucky leading 34-26, freshmen had scored 24 points.
Monk led the way with 14 first-half points. He hit three 3-pointers along the way.
The only non-freshman to score for Kentucky in the first half was Briscoe. He didn't shoot well from beyond the shadow of the rim, but five layups accounted for 10 points.
Briscoe set the halftime score. He took an inbounds pass at the rim with 2.1 seconds left and laid in a heavily-contested shot.
UK coach John Calipari's pre-game concern about rebounding never materialized. Michigan State outrebounded Kentucky 22-18 in the first half, but had only one put-back basket. It came with 4:16 left.
State's supposed muscle made little difference in terms of getting to the foul line. The Spartans did not shoot a free throw until only 2:02 remained in the first half, and shot only four before intermission.
Kentucky matched its largest lead of the first half before the first TV timeout of the second half. Monk's fifth 3-pointer put the Cats ahead 43-31 with 15:53 left.
