The Duke passes past Alabama, ensures Final Four bed

Newark, nj – in DukeThe first meeting of the season, in the summer, was a picture of San Antonio on the screen. Blue Devils wanted to get to Final Four for the first time since Mike Krzyzewski retired, the first final of the four era Dukes.

“This was our main focus all year round,” Tyrese Proctor He said ESPN early this week.

The best deployment of Blue Devils made another step in the season on Saturday evening and knocked no. 2 Alabama, 85-65To advance to the next week of the National Seem semi -final in Texas.

Blue Devils advanced to the first finals because Jon Scheyer took over in 2022 and will face the winners of the Sunday regional final of Houston vs. Tennessee.

Kon Knuepel led the way for Duke with 21 points while Cooper Flagg Calm with 16 points and nine rebounds. Labraon Philon had 16 points for Alabama.

It was inevitable Mark Sears And Crimson Tide wouldn’t have been brought against by their incredible display from Thursday in the evening, when Alabama made a NCAA record with 25 3-budders and Sears ended up with 34 points, 10 3s and eight assists.

Alabama coach Nate Oats spoke on Thursday evening after the victory of Crimson Tide over the “regression to the average”, referring to the performance of Sears after leaving only 5 for 35 out of 3 in the previous six games. But on Saturday it could be just as easy to use to describe the tide that returned to the ground after creating history two nights earlier.

Alabama hit three of his first five 3, but missed nine of his next 10, while Duke jumped on the first lead by gaining 13 points at the first 3:10. Crimson Tide fired only 5 to 19 from behind the arc in the first half and then missed six directly in the second half as he tried to get back into the game.

They finished 8: 32 of the 3-point range.

The Oats team tried to get something offensively soon against the Duke, especially when Blue Devils had a freshman Khaman Maluach In the game as a rim protector. Sears ended up with only two points in shooting 1: 4 in the first half. All-American Guard did not get a clean appearance that was constantly opposed to the Byu, and the Duke defended him much more aggressively-as a larger size.

Sears’ frustration reached the peak late in the second half when he was invited to travel and an offensive foul on the back-to-back property when Alabama ends up for 14 years. When shooting 2 for 12 ended with six points.

Crimson Tide, who shot better than 60% inside the arc during the season and had more points in color than any NCAA team in the first two rounds, also had extreme problems completing the color against Maluach. Only when Maluach was eliminated from the game late in the first half Grant Nelson He was able to get two free -of -open stripes for free.

Duke eventually held Alabama, the team of the highest score of the nation for more than 91 points per game, at 26 points below its average-A per 48 points less than scored on Thursday.

“These guys are incredible, the way they compete at both ends,” Scheyer said after the victory. “They are so connected and they were so disciplined tonight. I am incredibly grateful. When you are in a special place like Duke can happen special things.”

On the other hand, Duke’s superior size and physicality on the perimeter caused consistent problems. Kon Knueppel and Proctor easily entered the lane, and after Flagg grabbed a defensive reflection, he drove the coast to the coast for easy distribution against the non-matched defense of Alabama to build 35-22 with 6:47 in the first half.

Blue Devils were able to end up consistently on the edge or throw Lobs into Maluach for easy dunes. In the first half he had three such goals and another at the beginning of the second half. The Duke won the battle around the edge, Outscoring Alabama in color, 40-28.

Abama Scheyer used his bench much more against Alabama Scheyer’s fast and deep team on Thursday than against Arizona. Caleb Foster and Isaiah Evans He played only four minutes per piece against Wildcats, but Foster saw nine minutes in the first half and Evans played six in the opening period. Both provided several positive moments as well as Freshman Big Man Patrick Ngongba and Maliq Brownwho missed most of the last two months with shoulder injury.

Duke took the lead 46-37 to half-time after Nelson Layup pulled part of the sting from the three-point Flagg game with the remaining 16 seconds.

Alabama was able to briefly cause consistent dynamics. On one sequence at the beginning of the second half, Nelson had one of the blocks of the tournament when he met Flagg on the edge to deny him soaking, and then Sears returned and buried his first 3 games. To the tide of the tide, Chris Youngblood He finished the layout and foul to bring Alabama back to six.

That was as close as it got in the second half.

Duke replied 11-4 run to expand the lead to 13 and Blue Devils held Alabama along the length of the arm for the rest of the way before he increased the lead to 20 points in the last minutes.