March Madness: No. 1-seeded Duke overwhelms Alabama, advances to 18th Final Four
Duke forward Cooper Flagg reacts during the second half of an NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game against Alabama on Saturday in Newark, N.J. Credit: AP/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
NEWARK — One has to hand it to Duke: Only these Blue Devils could make dismantling an opponent look this beautiful.
Duke put a potent Alabama squad in a hole early and never let the Crimson Tide out of it, sailing wire-to-wire for an 85-65 triumph in the NCAA Tournament East Region championship game at Prudential Center.
Blue Devils star Cooper Flagg didn’t shoot well — just 6-for-16 — but still ended up with 16 points, nine rebounds and three assists and was named the regional’s Most Outstanding Player.
More important, he was part of Duke’s team defense, which pulled the nifty trick of making Crimson Tide leading scorer Mark Sears — and the nation’s highest-scoring offense — essentially disappear.
Alabama came in off a 113-point performance in Thursday’s regional semifinal win over BYU in which it went 25-for-51 on three-pointers. The Tide shot 35% overall and 8-for-32 on threes on Saturday.
“The story tonight against an incredible offense [that’s] like nobody else’s, to hold them to 65 points is incredible,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “Watching them play the other night? They score 113 [with] 25 threes.”
Duke had a 10-point just 4:07 into the game. Alabama cut the margin to four on four occasions but couldn’t get it under six in the final 33:15.
“We dug ourselves a hole early, gave ourselves some adversity we had to face,” Tide coach Nate Oats said. “I thought we did a decent job fighting back, but they’re too good a team to dig yourselves a big hole.”
No. 1-seeded Duke (35-3) reached its 18th Final Four and first since 2022. The Blue Devils, who are seeking their sixth national championship, will meet the winner of Sunday’s Midwest Region championship game between Houston and Tennessee in a national semifinal on Saturday in San Antonio.
Kon Knueppel had 21 points, Tyrese Proctor 17 and Khaman Maluach 14 for the Blue Devils, who shot 54% from the floor.
“Duke is as good a team as we’ve seen all year, [and] we’ve got some really good teams in the SEC,” Oats said. “Obviously a tough night for us [and] Duke obviously had a big part to do with that. They’re a great team. They’ve got great players.”
“We just have such a talented team — each night could be somebody else’s night,” Flagg said. “I think tonight Kon kind of stepped up and had the ball a lot.”
Duke has won four games in the tournament by an average of 23.5 points.
Labaron Philon had 16 points for No. 2 Alabama (28-9). Sears scored only six and shot 2-for-12.
Duke ranks in the top four nationally in both offensive efficiency and defensive efficiency, and it played exactly like that in the first half as it took a 46-37 lead into the intermission.
Alabama got the margin down to 65-59 with 8:03 left, but Duke scored 13 unanswered points to put it away.
“We shot 25% from three; is that good enough to beat Duke?” Oats said. “Yes, if you do everything else at an elite level. We didn’t do that.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
