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Duke’s stream of long, high NBA-ready outstanding excerpts smothered Alabama and pulled over Cooper Flagg’s rough shooting night to lift the Blue Devils to the 18th finals of the program with a 85-65 victory Saturday night in the NCAA tournament’s final of the Eastern Region.
Flagg made only 6 of the 16 shots, including a brick that got stuck in the flange of the edge, but still finished with 16 points. Could Knueppel, another possible lottery choice, led the Blue Devils by 21 points.
But the most important status: Alabama’s leading offense, one that comes from a record night of 3 in sweat 16, shot 8 for 32 from behind the bow, 35.4% generally and could not crack 70 for the second time this season.
Mark Sears, who was a short time of a tournament record with 10 3s two nights earlier, finished with one and only six points against the Blue Devils (35-3), who won their 15th straight.
At the last four in San Antonio, the Top Seeds play the winner of Sunday’s game between Houston and Tennessee. The victory erased any chance of an All-saltheastern Conference show on the Final Four, but with the number 1 that Florida had won earlier, it gave the prospect that all four top seeds played on the biggest stage of the sport for only the second time.
Khaman Maluach scored 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting and Duke shot 53.6% despite his best player’s rough night.
Flagg was barely bad in this one. He had nine rebounds, three assists and one mega block that sent Mouhammad Dioubate’s smoother about Press Row.
But in a match in which both teams focused on taking away the best player from the other, it was Duke who did it more effectively, turned off on Sears, locked the perimeter and never could breathe him.
The fifth-year-old senior’s first bucket of any kind came almost 18 minutes in the game and the shot was a 16-foot of the elbow-the exact kind of Midrange shot Nate Oats’s team of Dunkers and 3-point specialists.
Sears’ first 3 comes into play with 16:19. His last line: 2 for 12 from the floor, 1 for 5 of 3. He also had six assists. Labaron Philon led the second sown Crimson Tide (28-9) with 16 points. Not a single player in Alabama made more shots than he missed.
Duke coach Jon Scheyer has led the program for the first time since its predecessor Mike Krzyzewski’s last season in 2022, to six NBA outlook on his timetable.
They all offended – Tyrese Proctor had 17 points – and even Moreso on defense, where Alabama looked nothing like the team that set tournament records for making and attempting by 25 for 51 of 3 against BYU.
Final four firsts
The only other Final Four who has all the no. Seeds were in 2008 when Kansas, Memphis, UCLA and North Carolina made it. The website: San Antonio.
Another title for tide wheelchair team
It wasn’t a completely lost evening for tide fans. Shortly before Tipoff, the Alabama Women’s Wheelchair Hoops team beat Texas-Arlington 67-52 for its fifth direct national championship.
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AP March Madness Bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness. Get a poll and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.
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