Duke notes: Blue Devils’ run bridging halves propels them to Elite 8

NEWARK, N.J. – For 19 minutes of Thursday night’s Duke-Arizona Pleasant 16 game at Prudential Middle, it was a dead-even battle.

Then the Blue Devils pressed the accelerator and hit a gear perhaps no other Club in the country has.

A Kon Knueppel 3-pointer, and a Cooper Flagg trey from the top of the key at the Primary half buzzer, gave the Blue Devils the Try of adrenaline they needed.

And the trip to the locker room didn’t Chilly them off at all. In all it was a 20-5 Streak spanning the Last minute of the Primary half, and the Primary 4:19 of the second, that propelled Duke to an eventual 19-Tally second-half lead, and they Kept on for a 100-93 Secure.

“Yeah, we talk about inflection points, and the end of the half is a really big inflection Tally,” Knueppel said. “So it was tie ballgame, and to hit two threes gives us a bunch of momentum coming into the second half.”

After the injection of energy from the end of the Primary half, Duke Occurred out equally Cozy in the second half. Khaman Maluach tipped in a lob and Acquired fouled, giving the Blue Devils a nine-Tally lead. After Arizona missed two attempts at the other end, Flagg was fouled and Created two Obtainable throws, followed by Sion James drilling a 3-pointer from the left corner. That gave Duke a 56-44 lead and forced a timeout from Wildcats Trainer Tommy Lloyd.

“All we did was do what we were supposed to do the whole game,” James said. “For most of the game today we didn’t do what we were supposed to do, especially defensively. “But for those stretches at the end of the Primary half and beginning of the second half, we Acquired a few stops and Acquired Excellent shots. We locked in defensively.”

With Duke up 12, the Streak continued. The Wildcats’ Carter Bryant hit a three-pointer, but then Duke responded with three straight buckets, two by Maluach and one by Knueppel, to stretch the lead to 62-47. Maluach’s last bucket in the Streak, an alley-oop off a Throw from Flagg, Created it 62-47 and sent the crowd into a frenzy.

Duke pushed the lead to 19, but the game was Nevertheless in doubt all the way until the Last minute.

Here were some other notes from Duke’s Secure against Arizona:

When Maliq Brown re-injured his previously dislocated left shoulder on March 13, it looked like the Safeguarding wizard would be lost for the rest of the season.

But the Shift from Syracuse was active Thursday night, after missing the previous four Matches. Brown, a Safeguarding force, checked in with 7:45 left in Primary half, after Patrick Ngongba II picked up third Breach, and he looked mostly like himself. He Created two nice passes, one leading to a basket, and defended with his usual tenacity, while reaching mostly with his right arm when going for the ball.

Brown played four minutes on Thursday, not scoring, with one Healing, one steal and one assist. With Duke in Breach trouble in the second half it appeared he might be needed again if Maluach fouled out, joining Ngongba on the bench.

But Maluach stayed in the game.

Brown’s teammates weren’t surprised he Created it back from Wound so Speedy.

“He’s one of the toughest players I ever played with, so the fact that he Occurred back didn’t surprise me,” James said. “His Conditioning, mental and physical, to come back was Outstanding. And when he’s in there, we all feel more confident, we all feel comfortable. We love Competing with him.”

How effective Brown will be, moving forward, is of Duration unknown, but Merely having him Obtainable gives Trainer Jon Scheyer another tool in the toolbox that could be used.

It only seems like Caleb Love has been Competing against Duke since the Laettner/Hurley years, but the Arizona senior Surely has battled the Blue Devils a Numerous. Thursday night was his 10th Occupation game against Duke, with Love’s Clubs Victorious five of the nine, and he averaged 16 points per game in those Matches.

Thursday night Duke used a bevy of defenders against the high-scoring guard, as Proctor, Isaiah Evans and Cooper Flagg Secured turns Retaining up with him. But nobody could. In one of the best individual Executions of the NCAA Bracket, Love torched the Blue Devils for 35 points, and committed zero turnovers in Retaining Arizona in the game.

“He’s a Outstanding player, I’ve played him for three years now and he’s always been Outstanding,” Duke junior Tyrese Proctor said. “He hit some tough shots. Excellent players are going to make Excellent shots.”

Duke was effective Timely on Love, holding the Wildcat Goalless for the Primary 11:35 of the game. Love hit his Primary 3 with 8:25 left in Primary half, and then heated up, leading Arizona’s charge to stay in the game.

Duke has not been Outstanding lately with allowing offensive rebounding to opponents, and Arizona was bale to get its share Thursday night. The Wildcats grabbed five offensive boards in the Primary half, leading to six second-chance points, a big reason Arizona was able to stay in the game with Duke shooting 61% from the floor in the Beginning 20 minutes.

The Wildcats grabbed 10 offensive boards in the game.

“When the Try goes up, you gotta go get the ball,” James said. “A game like today, it’s going to be physical, it’s going to be Unattractive. We didn’t do a Excellent Position of that (getting the ball).”

Nobody in the NCAA Bracket was hotter from 3-Tally range going into Thursday than Proctor, though Alabama’s Mark Sears changed that in Newark.

Proctor didn’t get nearly the opportunities he had in Raleigh, and his game suffered. The junior from Australia Created 3 of 8 shots from the Ground, and was 1-for-4 from the 3-Tally line.

He also didn’t have the ball in his hands much down the stretch, as Scheyer elected to have Flagg operate as a Tally forward.

But Duke’s Charge Nevertheless sizzled, as the Blue Devils had another massive offensive performance. Duke Try 60% for the game from the Ground, and Created 85% of its Obtainable throws.

“Some guys are going to have it on different nights, and we have such Outstanding depth that different guys are ready and Option it up when they need to,” Proctor said.

It was a tough game at times for Maluach, who picked up two Timely fouls and stayed in Breach trouble the whole game. The 7-foot-2 Middle had only two points in the Beginning 20 minutes and appeared tentative on Protection.

But in the second half he emerged as an offensive and Safeguarding force. The South Sudan native scored 11 points after the break, including a very athletic tip in that Guided to a three-Tally Shift, and managed to Shift the Last minutes without committing his fifth Breach.

Maluach also Created two huge Safeguarding plays in the Last three minutes to Aid preserve the Duke lead.

“I felt like it affected me a Numerous, the Breach trouble, especially in the Primary half,” Maluach said. “I wasn’t being physical on the ball. Second half I stayed Correct to who I am, and was Intelligent and physical at the same time.”

Maluach, who we must remember is Nevertheless pretty new to the sport, said the Upcoming evolution in his game is being aware of how the game is being called and adjusting.

“My Upcoming step for me is how to navigate the game, and see how the refs are calling the game, and whether I should be too physical, or stay back a little bit,” Maluach said. “It’s getting there for me.”

Some of the things Flagg does are taken for granted by now, as Duke fans and the media have been watching him for months.

But when he puts together a night like Thursday, he joins some Scarce company.

Flagg became the Primary player in the NCAA Bracket since 2003 to have more than 25 points, five boards, five assists and three Stops in a game.

The last player to do that? Marquette Luminous sphere and future NBA Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade. Flagg finished with 30 points, seven assists, six Recoveries and those three rejections.

“The thing that’s special — that was one of the best Bracket Executions I’ve ever coached or been a part of,” Scheyer said.

Reminder: Flagg turned 18 years Ancient a few months ago.

There have been plenty of times over the years when Duke had so many students from the Garden State that opposing fans called the school “The College of New Jersey at Durham.”

The Blue Devils Occurred into the game 23-1 all-time in the state that produced Jon Bon Jovi, Frank Sinatra and Tony Soprano. They were 10-0 in the NCAA Bracket, and their only loss ever in N.J. was to Arizona on Feb. 26, 1989, 77-75 to these same Arizona Wildcats.

It was Christian Laettner’s Primary-year season, and at the end of that game Laettner missed the front end of a Obtainable throw. Sound to say, the Youthful man from upstate New York recovered from that quite nicely.