NEWARK, N.J. — Duke stud Cooper Flagg put on a skills clinic and overcame an onslaught from Arizona and Caleb Love, finishing with 30 points, six rebounds, seven assists and three blocks Thursday night in a 100-93 NCAA Tournament victory that pulled the Blue Devils within one win of the Final Four.
Flagg, long over the balky ankle that sidelined him earlier this month, did enough to prevent Love, a thorn in Duke’s side for five years, from ruining another Blue Devils season.
Love finished with 35 points, one short of his career high, including a streak of 12 straight for his Wildcats (24-13) during a ferocious second-half run that cut a 19-point deficit to as little as five with 1:56 left.
But it’s the top-seeded Blue Devils (34-3) moving to the Elite Eight for the second straight season. On Saturday comes a 1-vs.-2 showdown in the East Region, when coach Jon Scheyer’s team faces Alabama, which set a March Madness record for 3-pointers in a 113-88 win over BYU earlier in the evening.
A win would put Duke in the Final Four for the 18th time. The last time, in 2022, Love played for North Carolina and scored 28 points to bring an end to legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski’s career.
This time, the 18-year-old Flagg ended Love’s stay in college, and showed why he should be the top pick in the NBA draft if he decides to leave, too.
Arizona chipped away at its big deficit and got within five when Carter Bryant made a 3-pointer with 1:56 left.
Flagg made three of four free throws — and Duke made 9 of 10 — to salt away the win down the stretch.
The fourth-seeded Wildcats sagged and hung on the 6-foot-9 freshman and made him work for everything. But he was just better than everyone on the court.
There were too many highlights to count, but here were a few:
— At the end of the first half, when Duke rebounded Love’s missed 3, worked the ball to Flagg and he swished his own 3, then turned around and screamed “Let’s go, man!” as he ran to the locker room with a 48-42 lead.
— A spinning no-look pass to Sion James, who made an open 3 early in the second half, as part of a run that built the lead to 19.
— Two alley-oops, one a no-look to Khaman Maluach, the other to Kon Knueppel.
— The massive rejection of Arizona guard KJ Lewis into the phalanx of Arizona cheerleaders on a possession that could’ve trimmed the deficit to seven with about 5 minutes left.
It was a show that brought an end to Love’s vibrant career — one he wasn’t willing to see end without a fight. He missed his first three shots but finished 11 for 21 and made five 3s to keep his team in it.
He scored seven more than he did when he shut down Coach K’s career. In this one, Love got the most help from Jaden Bradley, who finished with 15 points. But the Wildcats couldn’t do enough to conjure a repeat of 2011, the last time these programs met in the tournament and Arizona knocked out the top-seeded Blue Devils.
Story by Eddie Pells.
