Duke and UConn once again put on a game for the ages, with the Huskies coming back for a dramatic 73-72 win.
People will compare it to Houston’s comeback last year, but it’s not quite the same thing: 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.
Still, the Blue Devils were in position to win after a brilliant first half.
Duke got out to a great start against UConn on both offense and defense.
UConn relied heavily on Terrence Reed, who got 12 early points, and 12 of UConn’s first 16, but the Huskies struggled overall on offense, shooting just 35% overall and 1-11 on threes, for 9%.
By contrast, Duke shot 52% overall and 45% from three.
Outside of Reed, UConn shot 7-24 for 29%. The Blue Devils also shut Alex Karaban out completely, holding him to 0-5 before halftime.
Duke dominated the boards, 22-13, and assisted on 11 of 15 baskets. The Boozer brothers combined to nearly outscore UConn by themselves: Cameron had 14 and Cayden 13.
Also key: the Blue Devils didn’t foul much in the first half, as no one had more than one, while UConn’s Reed and Braylon Mullins had two each. This was really a big deal because Maliq Brown was having back spasms before the game and spent part of the first half on the bench with a pad of some sort on his back. It looked like a heating pad, but it could also have been an EMS pad.
Fortunately, Cameron Boozer also elevated his play, notably throwing one Reed shot back, and blocking it directly to brother Cayden.
UConn cut the lead to 50-38 at the 16:29 mark before Dame Sarr got loose on a break to push it back to 52-38.
But the Huskies pulled off a 16-6 run to cut it to 56-49 with 10:59 to play. Ngongba and Brown both had picked up three fouls, so defending Reed was much more difficult.
Duke bounced back though. Nik Khamenia got a layup, and then Boozer drove and UConn got hit with goaltending 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 up by 10, but Demary came right back with another of his own to cut it back to 7.
UConn kept coming though, and in the closing seconds, the Blue Devils made two critical turnovers, one by each Boozer: Cameron coughed one up in the lane with Duke up 70-66, and UConn capitalized with a three by Alex Karaban to cut the lead to 70-69.
Boozer came back and made a shot in the lane to put Duke back up 72-69, before fouling Silas Demary with 0:10 left. He split his free throws, and Duke got the ball in…Then the other critical mistake happened.
With just 0:10 left, Duke didn’t have to cross half court, but Boozer tried to pass over a UConn defender. Karaban got the ball to Braylon Mullins, who hit a three from the logo with 0:04 left to put the Huskies up, 73-72.
It would have taken a miracle to win after that, and Duke didn’t have one. So the Huskies will go to the Final Four. They showed a ton of heart and passion, and they earned the win. We’ll pull for them in Indy.
People will focus on those turnovers, especially the last one, but we should all also remember that this team made a gutty run under difficult circumstances. Foster and Ngongba played as best they could, despite Foster having had surgery for a broken bone in his foot, and Ngongba playing with a stress fracture. Then Brown dealt with his own issue over the weekend.
What we’ll remember about this team is the guts they showed to get this far with a severely damaged rotation. It’s been a wonderful ride, and we’re happy to have witnessed it.
In spite of the ending, it was a wonderful season.
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