Flagg flies as Blue Devils reach Elite 8
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Duke stud Cooper Flagg’s highlight reel included a 3-pointer from just in front of the logo at the halftime buzzer, one no-look pass for an alley- oop and another for a 3, and a huge blocked shot into a row of Arizona cheerleaders.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Duke stud Cooper Flagg’s highlight reel included a 3-pointer from just in front of the logo at the halftime buzzer, one no-look pass for an alley- oop and another for a 3, and a huge blocked shot into a row of Arizona cheerleaders.
He needed all that to hold off an onslaught from the Wildcats and Duke’s biggest nemesis, Caleb Love, for a 100-93 victory in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night that pushed the Blue Devils a win from the Final Four.
Flagg’s final line: 30 points, seven assists, six rebounds, three blocks. And his biggest college win yet.
“That’s one of the best tournament performances I’ve ever coached or been a part of,” said coach Jon Scheyer, who has seen plenty.
Love, a thorn in Duke’s side for the last five years, finished with 35 points, one short of his career high, including a streak of 15 straight for his fourth-seeded Wildcats (24-13) during a ferocious second-half run that cut a 19-point deficit to five with 1:56 left.
But it’s the top-seeded Blue Devils (34-3) moving on. On Saturday comes a 1-vs.-2 showdown in the East Region, when Scheyer’s team faces Alabama, which set a March Madnessrecord for 3-pointers in a 113-88 win over BYU earlier in the evening.
A win would put Duke in the Final Four for the 18th time. The last time, in 2022, Love played for North Carolina and scored 28 points to bring an end to legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski’s career.
This time, the 18-year-old Flagg ended Love’s stay in college, and showed why he should be the top pick in the NBA draft if he decides to leave, too.
“What I’ve wanted from him was not to defer,” Scheyer said. “Just wanted him to fully be him. I thought he was in his element tonight. He was loose, talking, competitive, the whole thing.”
Arizona chipped away at its big deficit and got within five when Carter Bryant made a 3-pointer with 1:56 left.
Flagg made three of four free throws — and Duke made 9 of 10 — to salt away the win down the stretch.
“They were a machine on offense,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said.
Duke shot 60% from the floor and 57.9% from 3 to close out a defense-optional night at the Prudential Center in which both winners hit triple digits.
The fourth-seeded Wildcats sagged and hung on the 6-foot-9 freshman and made him work for everything. But he was just better than everyone on the court.
There were too many highlights to count. Here were a few: — At the end of the first half, when Duke rebounded Love’s missed 3, worked the ball to Flagg and he swished his own 3, then turned around and screamed “Let’s go, man!” as he ran to the locker room with a 48-42 lead.
— A spinning, no-look pass to Sion James, who made an open 3 early in the second half, as part of a run that built the lead to 19.
— Two alley-oops, one a no-look to Khaman Maluach, the other to Kon Knueppel.
— A massive rejection of Arizona guard KJ Lewis into the phalanx of Arizona cheerleaders on a possession that could’ve trimmed the deficit to seven with about five minutes left.
It was a show that brought a close to Love’s vibrant college career — one he wasn’t willing to see end without a fight. He missed his first three shots but finished 11 for 21 and made five 3s to keep his team in it.
“He’s had an amazing career and I’m so excited for his future,” Lloyd said. “He was tremendous today. He’s going to wake up tomorrow and he’s going to smile. He has a lot to look forward to and so I’m really, really proud of him.”
Love scored seven more than he did when he shut down Coach K’s career.
In this one, he got the most help from Jaden Bradley, who finished with 15 points. But the Wildcats couldn’t do enough to conjure a repeat of 2011, the last time these programs met in the tournament and Arizona knocked out the top-seeded Blue Devils.
BROWN BACK FOR DUKE Maliq Brown returned to action for the Blue Devils after sitting out two weeks with an injured shoulder.
Sporting a sleeve on his left shoulder and upper arm, the junior came into the game with 7:51 left in the first half. He played four minutes and finished with a rebound and an assist.
ARIZONA GETS RECRUIT Arizona did get a big win earlier Thursday, when one of the nation’s top high school prospects, Koa Peat, said on “The Pat McAfee Show” that he was committing to play for the Wildcats.
Peat is expected to join another top recruit, LeBron James’ son Bryce, in coach Tommy Lloyd’s program next season.
Texas Tech 85, Arkansas 83 (OT)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Darrion Williams could barely make a shot for the first 30 minutes. He didn’t miss when it mattered most, sending Texas Tech to an improbable spot in the Elite Eight.
Williams scored the go-ahead basket with 7.3 seconds left in overtime after tying the game with a 3-pointer in the closing seconds of regulation to lead Texas Tech to an 85-83 win over Arkansas on Thursday night.
“The heart of the team is Darrion Williams,” coach Grant McCasland said. “He just is a resilient guy. I can’t even explain it. I put faith in him because I do believe that he’ll find a way in one-game scenarios to do whatever it takes to win. I honestly do. Whatever it takes.”
The first overtime game of March Madness came thanks to a furious comeback by the third-seeded Red Raiders (28-8) from 13 points down with less than 5 minutes left against coach John Calipari’s 10th-seeded Razorbacks (22-14).
Texas Tech advanced to play top-seeded Florida in the West Region final on Saturday with a chance at the school’s second Final Four trip after losing the title game to Virginia in 2019.
That idea seemed far-fetched for most of this game as Arkansas broke out to a double-digit lead early and was in control most of the way, leading by as many as 16 points in the second half.
“In the huddle, Coach said we’re going to find a way to win this no matter how much we’re down,” guard Christian Anderson said. “As a team we had that look, we’re not losing this game no matter what. … We had to find a way to make it happen. And at the end we did, so that was it.”
Williams helped will the Red Raiders down the stretch after opening the game by missing 13 of his 15 shots in front of a large contingent of his friends and family that came from Sacramento for the game.
But the Red Raiders closed regulation with a 16-3 run behind three 3-pointers from Anderson and three baskets from Williams. The biggest came when he rattled in a 3 with 9.7 seconds left after Jonas Aidoo had missed the front end of a one-andone.
Williams had missed eight of his first nine attempts from 3 before that make.
“Obviously they weren’t going in, but I was shooting open ones”, Williams said. “They’ll fall.”
JT Toppin then scored to start overtime and give Texas Tech its first lead since the opening minutes and it went back and forth from there, with D.J. Wagner tying it for Arkansas with 34 seconds left.
Williams then scored down low to give Texas Tech the lead and Wagner’s last shot hit the front rim, sending the Red Raiders into a wild celebration at midcourt as Williams pointed to the crowd following the second biggest comeback in Sweet 16 history.
Calipari could only walk off the court with pursed lips and a sigh as his first season at Arkansas ended in heartbreak after he fell just short of being the first coach to take four schools to the Elite Eight.
“We’re all disappointed here,” Calipari said. “But I told them, there’s nothing them individually or my team could do to disappoint me because of what they’ve done this year. I’m so proud of them.”
