Four Tops Advance To Final Four

 

Photo by Jason Schott.

In the East Regional Final on Saturday night in Newark, the No. 1 Duke Blue Devils advanced to the Final Four with their 85-65 win over the second-seeded Alabama Crimson Tide.

Duke will be joined by the top seeds in the other three regionals in San Antonio next weekend.

No. 1 Florida won the West Regional with an 84-79 comeback win over No. 3 Texas Tech on Saturday affternoon in San Francisco. (note: St. John's was the No. 2 seed)

On Sunday, No. 1 Houston beat No. 2 Tennessee, 69-50, to win the Midwest Regional, and top-seeded Auburn beat No. 2 Michigan State, 70-64, to take the South Region.

DUKE 85, ALABAMA 65 - EAST REGIONAL FINAL REPORT:

The Duke Blue Devils were powered by their four stars once again, starting with Kon Knueppel's 21 points on 6-15 FG, including 2-4 on three-pointers, with five rebounds and five assists.

Tyrese Proctor poured in 17 points on a superb 7-10 shooting night, with 2-5 from behind the arc, plus five rebounds and two assists.

Cooper Flagg had 16 points (6-16 FG, 1-2 threes) and nine rebounds, narrowly missing a double-double, as well as three assists and a block.

Khaman Maluach had 14 points on a near-perfect 6-7 from the field, and also just missed a double-double with nine rebounds, as well as two blocks, an assist and a steal.

The most renowned of that fearsome foursome is Cooper Flagg, and he said afterwards of being picked up by his teammates when he didn't have his best night, "Yeah, I think it's kind of something that I've said a lot through this whole year is we just have such a talented team. Each night could be somebody else's night. I think tonight Kon kind of stepped up and had the ball a lot. We ran a lot of actions for him. Tyrese was huge for us.

"I think it's just having so many talented guys on the team, it's not going to be your night every night. Just don't hang your head, just keep playing hard. Somebody talked about winning the 98 percent and doing all the little things. So not letting the shots affect anything else you do and just knowing that the rest of the guys got my back and they're going to make those plays."

Duke came out firing, as they raced out to a 15-5 lead in the opening five minutes and seven seconds.

Alabama got back into it, pulling within five points before a Flagg layup made it 35-22 with 6:47 left in the first half. Duke took a nine-point edge, 46-37, into halftime.

Duke maintained around a 10-point lead throughout the second half, but Alabama pulled to within seven, at 65-58, on a pair of Labaron Philon free throws at the 8:03 mark.

Those were the last points Alabama would score for five minutes and 16 seconds, amidst a 13-0 run from Duke to open up a 20-point lead when Maluach buried a pair of free throws at the 2:52 mark. Mark Sears broke the drought for Alabama at 2:47 when Mark Sears hit one of two free throw attempts. 

Jon Scheyer won a National Championship as a Duke player in 2010, and this will be his first time as their Head Coach at the Final Four.

Duke won five under Scheyer's predecessor, Mike Kryzezewski, and Scheyer said of what it was like following in his footsteps and keeping the program at an elite level, "Well, look, as I was going through the interview process, I did my homework. When you look at successions, very rarely is this thing - do people succeeed following  - Coach K is one of them, but following a legendary or a great coach. I'll tell you, for me, a huge thing was having that year, though. For Coach K to be able to have the vision - I don't know how many coaches genuinely want to see the program succeed when they leave. And for me, I've always wanted to make him proud. Part of his legacy isn't just the wins. I want his legacy to be how our program continues to be right there as a top program, and that's something Coach K and I have talked a lot about.

"So obviously there's a responsibility you feel and a pride. But this team hasn't been about outside noise for me because it's just - I don't know if you can ever win. So my energy has gone into everybody that's in our building, our team, what we can control. And I just couldn't be more proud and thankful for having a group that's believed in me, us, the support from our administration, just down the line, has been incredible. I'm really proud of the people that have believed in me and us to get to the Final Four.

Scheyer also said of taking Duke to the brink of a national championship after shutting down Alabama's offense, Scheyer said, "San Antonio sounds great. I mean, look, first, couldn't be more excited and happy for these guys to my left. I think Tyrese (Proctor) and I, the feeling of losing last year at this point, every decision we made, everything we did was to get back here and then have the team have the opportunity to advanced to the promised land. To go to San Antonio, to go to the Final Four.

"Couldn't be more proud of the team as a whole. Their attitudes the whole season, from day one, I think this group has been different. They make fun of me. I keep telling them, don't change. Don't change, keep being them. 

"I thought the story tonight against an incredible offense - and (Alabama Head Coach) Nate (Oats) does an amazing job with their offense and the way they play, it's like nobody else. To hold them to 65 points is incredible. Watching them play the other night, they score 113 (points), 25 threes. (referring to Alabama's win over BYU, 113-88 on Thursday) I think the biggest thing for us was not to take the bait of getting so spread. (Chris) Youngblood, (Mark) Sears, and (Aden) Holloway had 21 of the 25 threes. We want to use our length and size, and these guys did an incredible job."

Youngblood was held to 10 points on 4-9 shooting, including 1-5 on three-pointers, with four rebounds, an assist, and a steal. Sears had six points (2-12 FG, 1-5 threes) and six assists, while committing five turnovers. Holloway had five points (2-8 FG, 1-6 threes), a rebound, and an assist in 20 minutes off the bench.