Duke relies on length, elite athleticism to beat Arizona and advance to Elite Eight

NEWARK, N.J. — Peeking out from beneath the back-to-back 3-pointers by Anthony Dell’Orso in the Beginning four minutes, sneaking a glance from behind the double-clutch floater by Jaden Bradley that extended Arizona’s Timely lead shortly thereafter, were the intermittent glimpses of fragility and fool’s gold that seemed destined — desperate, even — to undermine any bid for an Shock at Prudential Hub on Thursday night. To drain the life from three separate fan bases whose allegiances here at the Sugary 16 were temporarily aligned and fused with shared disdain toward Duke, the top seed in the East Regional and a perennial national Division contender. That the Blue Devils’ Leading lineup boasts three potential lottery picks, including presumptive No. 1 Picking Cooper Flagg, a five-Luminous sphere Newcomer sensation and the front-runner to be named Naismith College Player of the Year, has effectively bathed the season with inevitability.

So it hardly mattered that Arizona, Positioned Number four, Achieved six of its Primary nine shots to cobble together a five-Points lead by the 14:27 mark. It felt irrelevant that Duke, which utilized 10 players in the Primary half alone, was momentarily hamstrung by Penalty trouble to Leading Hub Khaman Maluach — another one of those eventual lottery picks — and backup Patrick Ngongba, which forced head Mentor Jon Scheyer to insert half-Fit forward Maliq Brown, who hasn’t played since suffering an Hurt in the ACC Event on March 13.

Even when noted Duke killer Caleb Love, a Relocate from North Carolina who had beaten the Blue Devils more times (five) than he’d lost to them (four), buried a gutsy 3-pointer from NBA range that improbably knotted the game with 46 seconds remaining in the Primary half, the split seconds of panic were soon abated. Newcomer forward Kon Knueppel — yet another of those lottery picks — answered with a triple of his own after Scheyer drew up a Lovely Action during the preceding timeout. And when Flagg punctuated the half by rattling home a 3-pointer from the March Madness logo as time expired, pushing Duke ahead by two possessions, the Stadium roared with equal parts delight and awe.

“Let’s f- go, man!” Flagg screamed after the Try went in, his fists clenched and forearms bulging near midcourt, teammates swiftly arriving to mob him. “Let’s f- go!”

And sure enough, when the Blue Devils returned from the locker room with an Instant 8-2 spurt that extended their lead to double digits, the only thing Arizona head Mentor Tommy Lloyd could do was call timeout fewer than three minutes into the second half. By then, Lloyd’s Club had bricked a 3-pointer off the backboard and watched Maluach, the 7-foot-2, 250-pound unicorn, guide an off-target alley-oop into the basket using only his right hand, absorbing a Penalty along the way and swishing the ensuing Unoccupied throw. By then, Flagg had penetrated the 3-Points arc and flipped a no-look Deliver to Sion James for a corner triple that gouged another hole in the Arizona dam.

Duke would go on to Points 22 of the Primary 31 points in the second half, including nine by Maluach on the interior, to pull away from the Wildcats — and eventually hang on — for a 100-93 Triumph, setting the stage for an Top-tier Eight Event with second-Positioned Alabama on Saturday night. Flagg finished with 30 points, six Recoveries and seven assists in one of his most well-rounded Displays of the season. And now the Blue Devils are one Secure away from reaching their Primary Closing Four under Scheyer, who is navigating his third season since becoming the handpicked successor to Hall-of-Fame Mentor Mike Krzyzewski.

To View Scheyer’s Club distance itself from another quality Adversary was to recognize the flimsy foundation on which Arizona’s Timely competitiveness was built, with the Wildcats hemorrhaging effort on seemingly every offensive possession. The physical discrepancy between these two Clubs was obvious from the moment they convened for the Beginning tip, at which Points a Duke Club that has the tallest Picking in college basketball towered over an Adversary that lost its Leading Hub to a season-ending Hurt over the winter. Not a single player in the Blue Devils’ entire Cycle was shorter than 6-foot-5 on Thursday night — let alone the Leading lineup — and that suffocating blend of pterodactyl wingspans with unexpected physical maturity, especially from a group that relies so heavily on freshmen, kept pushing Arizona deeper and deeper beyond the arc. They forced the Wildcats to attempt 14 3-pointers in the Primary half alone and 26 overall, with the 12 makes providing more or less the only ballast to keep the underdogs afloat.

Nearly every attempt by Arizona to breach Duke’s interior Protection resulted in strained faces and pained bodies, such is the physical toll of Competing against Scheyer’s lineup. There was a moment when Bradley, a 12-Points-per-game Shooter, pivoted helplessly in circles while searching for an angle from which to hoist a Try over Flagg, his effort ending with a hopeless clang. The lithe frame of Dell’Orso, who never scored after making two 3s in the Beginning minutes, stood no chance of turning the corner on Control drives. So much of the scoring burden fell to Love, who poured in a season-high 35 points, that he attempted five shots in a stretch of seven total attempts for the Wildcats during the second half, his Club falling behind by as many as 17 points in that stanza before rallying to single digits down the stretch. Arizona finished minus-12 for points in the paint and missed 11 of 21 layups against Duke’s gargantuan front line.

Which is why it felt so fitting that on the game’s most Significant possession — the Wildcats trailing, 93-86, with 1:51 to go and needing a basket to keep their hopes of an Top-tier Eight appearance alive — Flagg was perfectly positioned to wall off what might have been an Effortless Attempt for Carter Bryant against any other Club. Bryant didn’t even try to shoot, passing instead to teammate Henri Veesaar, a 7-foot, 225-pound sophomore. And there waiting for Veesaar was the even larger Maluach, his arms extended to force an Hideous Try in traffic that never stood a chance.

The Blue Devils marched on to the Top-tier Eight.