Ad Disclosure
Alabama falls flat as Duke rolls into Final Four with wire-to-wire win
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Alabama and Duke entered Saturday’s Elite Eight action with the Crimson Tide looking for back-to-back trips to the Final Four. However, that was not meant to be with Nate Oats’s squad falling to the Blue Devils, 85-65, to drop out of the NCAA Tournament.
While the two teams served as the top 2 seeds in the East Region, it was always a tall task for Alabama. The Blue Devils, led by All-American and Player of the Year candidate Cooper Flagg, proved it was their game to control early on.
Duke opened the game with a 3-pointer by Flagg and scored 15 of the game’s first 20 points for the first double-digit lead of the game before 5 minutes had even elapsed. Alabama would respond and cut into the lead, trimming it to as little as 4 points at multiple times, but the deficit was all the way back to 9 points at halftime.
The 2nd half was unfortunately more of the same with Alabama never getting closer than 6 points. Any potential drama was eventually sucked out of the building by a 13-0 run by the Blue Devils as they built their largest lead of the game, a 20-point advantage with 2:52 left in the game.
In spite of that score, it was not a dominant performance from Flagg, though his fingerprints were all over the final outcome. He ended the game with 16 points, but Duke was led in scoring by Kon Knueppel with 21 points and Tyrese Proctor with 17 points. Khaman Maluach also had 14 points as the superstars for the Blue Devils shined brightly.
On the other hand, it was one of the worst games of Mark Sears’s career in his Alabama finale. The star guard for the Crimson Tide was held to just 6 points and finished a disastrous 2-for-12 from the field with 5 turnovers. Labaron Philon led the Tide with 16 points, but it was far from enough with Duke dominating both ends of the court.
The Blue Devil defense held Alabama to just 35% shooting from the floor and 8-for-32 (25%) from 3-point range while forcing 11 turnovers. Duke actually had more turnovers (13) but shot better than 50% (54%) from the floor in the rout. The Blue Devils also had a +11 rebounding margin.
Duke advances to its first Final Four under Jon Scheyer and the program’s first since 2022. The Blue Devils will await the winner of Houston vs. Tennessee in San Antonio in the national semifinals.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
