Duke tames Tide for school's 18th Final Four bid

NEWARK, N.J. -- In Duke's first meeting of the season, back in the summer, there was a picture of San Antonio up on the screen. The Blue Devils wanted to get to the Final Four for the first time since Mike Krzyzewski retired, the first Final Four of the new Duke era.

"That was our main focus all year," guard Tyrese Proctor told ESPN earlier this week.

The top-seeded Blue Devils took the next step in the seasonlong quest Saturday night, knocking off No. 2 Alabama 85-65 to advance to next week's national semifinal in Texas.

The Blue Devils advanced to the first Final Four since Jon Scheyer took over in 2022, their 18th overall, and will face the winner of Sunday's Houston vs. Tennessee regional final.

Kon Knueppel led the way for Duke with 21 points, while Cooper Flagg finished with 16 points and nine rebounds. Labaron Philon had 16 points for Alabama.

It was inevitable that Mark Sears and the Crimson Tide wouldn't carry over their incredible shooting display from Thursday night against BYU, when Alabama set an NCAA tournament record with 25 3-pointers and Sears finished with 34 points, 10 3s and 8 assists.

Alabama coach Nate Oats spoke Thursday night after the Crimson Tide's win over BYU about "regression to the mean," in reference to Sears' performance after he had gone just 5-for-35 from 3 in his previous six games. But on Saturday, it could just as easily have been used to describe the Tide coming back to earth after making history two nights earlier.

Alabama hit three of its first five 3s, but missed nine of its next 10 while Duke jumped out to an early lead by scoring 13 points in the first 3:10. The Crimson Tide shot just 5-for-19 from behind the arc in the first half, and then missed six straight in the second half when looking to get back in the game.

They finished 8-for-32 from 3-point range.

Oats' team struggled to get anything going offensively early against Duke, especially when the Blue Devils had freshman Khaman Maluach in the game as a rim protector. Sears finished with just two points on 1-for-4 shooting in the first half. The All-American guard wasn't getting the clean looks he consistently found against BYU, with Duke defending him far more aggressively -- and with more size.

Sears' frustration peaked late in the second half, when he was called for a travel and an offensive foul on back-to-back possessions with Alabama trailing by 14. He finished with six points on 2-for-12 shooting.

The Crimson Tide, who shot better than 60% inside the arc during the season and had more points in the paint than any team in the NCAA tournament through the first two rounds, also had extreme difficulty finishing in the paint against Maluach. It wasn't until Maluach was subbed out of the game late in the first half that Grant Nelson was able to get free for two dunks through a wide-open lane.

Duke ultimately held Alabama, the nation's top-scoring team at more than 91 points per game, to 26 points below its average -- and to 48 points fewer than it scored Thursday.

"These guys, they're incredible, the way they compete on both ends," Scheyer said after the win. "They are so connected, and tonight, they were so disciplined. I'm incredibly grateful. When you're at a special place like Duke, special things can happen."

At the other end, Duke's superior size and physicality on the perimeter were causing consistent problems for Alabama. Knueppel and Proctor were getting into the lane with ease, and after Flagg grabbed a defensive rebound, he drove coast-to-coast for an easy layup against an unsettled Alabama defense to put Duke up 35-22 with 6:47 left in the first half.

The Blue Devils were able to finish consistently at the rim or throw lobs to Maluach for easy dunks. He had three such finishes in the first half and another one early in the second half. Duke won the battle around the rim, outscoring Alabama in the paint 40-28.

Against a fast-paced and deep Alabama team, Scheyer used his bench much more than he did against Arizona on Thursday. Caleb Foster and Isaiah Evans played just four minutes apiece against the Wildcats, but Foster saw nine minutes in the first half and Evans played six in the opening period. Both provided some positive moments, as did freshman big man Patrick Ngongba II and junior Maliq Brown, who has missed most of the past two months with a shoulder injury.

Duke took a 46-37 lead into halftime after a Nelson layup in the final seconds took some of the sting out of a Flagg 3-point play with 16 seconds remaining.

Alabama was only briefly able to generate consistent momentum. On one sequence early in the second half, Nelson had one of the blocks of the tournament when he met Flagg at the rim to deny him a dunk, and then Sears came back down and buried his first 3 of the game. On the Tide's next possession, Chris Youngblood finished a layup-and-foul to bring Alabama back within six.

That was as close as it got in the second half.

Duke responded with an 11-4 run to extend the lead to 13 and the Blue Devils kept Alabama at arm's length the rest of the way before growing the lead to 20 points in the final minutes.