If you look back at the final seconds of Duke’s win over Virginia, it’s pretty interesting.
When Isaiah Evans gets the ball in to Cameron Boozer with 27.4 seconds on the clock, Boozer does what he usually does in that sort of situation: he heads to the basket like a train highballing downhill.
He fakes right, then goes left and runs right at Ugonna Onyenso, who had already blocked 8 shots. Onyenso obviously doesn’t want to foul in this situation and is leaning away from Boozer to avoid the foul, and Boozer goes up
left-handed, so that Onyenso has to come across his body to block it.
Boozer misses the shot, but not the rebound, and when he gets it with 22.2 left on the clock, all five Virginia players surround him. It’s crazy. Nik Khamenia has also crashed the boards, but Isaiah Evans, Dame Sarr, and Cayden Boozer are all on the other side of the three-point line and wide open.
So who does Boozer pass to?
He chooses the guy he’s played with for his entire life. And with 19.6 seconds left to play, brother Cayden immediately gives it to Evans, who is the best foul shooter on the team, and Cayden puts his hands up to tell everyone to be cool. This is under control.
A Virginia defender, 6-7 Sam Lewis, rushes out to confront Evans at the edge of the mid-court logo…and immediately looks to Ryan Odom: do I foul him? This guy?
Evans burns more than 6 seconds while Virginia tries to sort this out.
After Evans converts both free throws, Virginia gets the ball back with 12.3 seconds left, and Malik Thomas drives to the basket. Duke basically lets him, but if you watch closely, Cayden Boozer has an impressive defensive play: no one wants to foul, but Boozer goes up with Thomas and forces him into a very difficult shot. This was almost one of the greatest defensive plays in Duke history, and a tremendous gamble. But he played it very well.
After that shot, there were 5.8 seconds left on the clock, and Virginia put Cameron Boozer back on the line.
You’ll recall that Boozer missed a critical pair just a bit earlier.
Not this time.
Boozer made both.
Virginia had 3.9 seconds left to work with – not much, but not impossible, either. However, they tried a long inbounds pass, and Cayden Boozer picked it off at half court.
The key to the final sequence though was that the Virginia players couldn’t figure out what to do once Evans got the ball, and apparently, though you can’t really see this, Odom couldn’t communicate what he wanted effectively and quickly.
Or maybe he did and they froze. It’s hard to know.
Whatever it was, if you give Virginia an extra 6 seconds at the end, that’s plenty of time to get up court, get a basket, and either steal or foul after the inbounds.
Those 6 seconds effectively doomed the Cavaliers.
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