Duke and UConn once again put on a game for the ages, with the Huskies coming back for a dramatic 73-72 victory.
People will compare it to Houston’s comeback last year, but it’s not quite the same: This time, Duke’s Caleb Foster and Pat Ngongba were playing with serious foot injuries, and Maliq Brown had back spasms after Friday’s win over St. John’s.
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Still, the Blue Devils were in position to win after a brilliant first half.
Duke got off to a great start against UConn on both offense and defense.
UConn relied heavily on Terrence Reed, who scored 12 opening points and 12 of UConn’s first 16, but the Huskies struggled overall on offense, shooting just 35% overall and 1-11 on three-pointers, for 9%.
In contrast, Duke shot 52% from deep and 45% from three.
Outside of Reed, UConn shot 7-24 for 29%. The Blue Devils also completely shut out Alex Karaban, keeping it 0-5 heading into halftime.
Duke dominated the boards, 22-13, and assisted on 11 of 15 baskets. The Boozer brothers combined to nearly surpass UConn on their own: Cameron had 14 and Cayden 13.
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Also key: The Blue Devils didn’t commit many fouls in the first half, as no one committed more than one, while UConn’s Reed and Braylon Mullins each committed two. This was a really big deal because Maliq Brown had back spasms before the game and spent part of the first half on the bench with some sort of pad on his back. It looked like a heating pad, but it could also have been an EMS pad.
Fortunately, Cameron Boozer also upped his game, notably taking a Reed shot back and blocking it straight toward his brother Cayden.
UConn cut the lead to 50-38 at the 16:29 mark before Dame Sarr broke free on a break to bring it back to 52-38.
But the Huskies went on a 16-6 run to cut the score to 56-49 with 10:59 left. Ngongba and Brown had committed three fouls, so defending Reed was much more difficult.
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However, Duke recovered. Nik Khamenia scored a layup, and then Boozer drove and UConn was hit to put Duke up by 11.
Silas Demary hit a rare three for UConn to cut it to 7, but Khamenia hit a three of his own to push Duke back within 10, but Demary came back with another of his own to cut it to 7.
However, UConn continued to push forward, and in the final seconds, the Blue Devils committed two critical turnovers, one for each Boozer: Cameron coughed up one in the lane with Duke up 70-66, and UConn capitalized with an Alex Karaban three to cut the lead to 70-69.
Boozer came back and made a jumper at the line to put Duke back up 72-69, before fouling Silas Demary with 0:10 left. He split his free throws and Duke put the ball in… Then the other critical error occurred.
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With just 0:10 left, Duke didn’t have to cross midcourt, but Boozer attempted to run over a UConn defender. Karaban passed the ball to Braylon Mullins, who hit a logo 3-pointer with 0:04 left to put the Huskies up, 73-72.
It would have taken a miracle to win after that, and Duke had none. Then the Huskies will move on to the Final Four. They showed a lot of heart and passion and earned the victory. We will support them in Indy.
People will focus on those turnovers, especially the last one, but we all need to also remember that this team put on a brave performance under difficult circumstances. Foster and Ngongba played as well as they could, even though Foster had undergone surgery for a broken foot and Ngongba was playing with a stress fracture. Then Brown addressed his own issue over the weekend.
What we will remember about this team is the courage it showed to get this far with a badly damaged rotation. It has been a wonderful journey and we are happy to have witnessed it.
Despite the ending, it was a wonderful season.
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