ATLANTA — Kentucky threw the first punch, then Duke built a double-digit lead. In the end, the latest edition of this blue-blood college basketball rivalry came down to the final seconds.
Otega Oweh came up with a big steal at the end, taking it the other way to score the game’s winning points on two free throws, ultimately giving the No. 19 Wildcats a 77-72 victory over the sixth-ranked Blue Devils in the first marquee game of the Mark Pope era.
After Duke led for much of the way, it was a back-and-forth game in the final minutes.
Andrew Carr finished off an and-one play with 3:57 left to tie the game at 67-all, and he later found Oweh on a cut to the basket to give the Cats a 69-67 lead, their first advantage since midway through the first half.
After Duke freshman Cooper Flagg — the projected No. 1 pick in next year’s NBA draft — answered with an and-one to give the Blue Devils a 70-69 lead, Carr came back with another of his own. The UK forward scored on a driving basket and hit the free throw to put the Cats up 72-70. Flagg answered on the other end with a strong finish to tie it up again at 72-all.
That set up the finish, with Oweh stripping the ball from Flagg and taking it the other way for the go-ahead points with 10 seconds left. On Duke’s next possession, UK center Amari Williams forced Flagg to commit another turnover in the corner. Lamont Butler hit the front end of a one-and-one to make it 75-72 with 5.1 seconds left, then missed the second, but Oweh kept the offensive rebound alive and iced the game with two free throws of his own.
Carr led Kentucky with 17 points, the third different leading scorer for the Wildcats in three games under Pope.
Flagg led the Blue Devils with 26 points and 12 rebounds, making several key plays down the stretch. He started the scoring by finishing off a high-flying alley-oop on the Blue Devils’ first possession, and that set the tone for a hot start in Atlanta.
Kentucky made its first five 3-point attempts — helping the Wildcats build a 19-13 lead before the second TV timeout — but UK missed its next eight long-range attempts. The Cats also endured a stretch of eight consecutive missed shots over a span of a little more than three minutes.
By the end of that drought, a 24-21 Kentucky lead had turned into a 30-24 advantage for the Blue Devils, who went on to build a 10-point lead before halftime.
The game was flowing well early, but a flurry of foul calls slowed the action. The Cats were called for nine of the game’s first 13 fouls, and three UK starters — Butler, Oweh and Carr — were whistled for two fouls each before the under-8 timeout, forcing them to the bench.
All three eventually returned to play before halftime.
The calls evened up as the half progressed, with Flagg getting his second foul with 6:40 to go in the first half, and fellow freshman starter Khaman Maluach — the Blue Devils’ 7-2 center — going to the bench with his second a few minutes later.
By halftime, Duke had 11 fouls, one more than Kentucky. And the Blue Devils led 46-37.
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