Duke falls short of Final Four

WASHINGTON — Duke’s NCAA tournament run came to an end Sunday with a 68-67 loss to Michigan State in the Elite Eight.

The loss marks the second time in as many years the Blue Devils were unable to punch the final ticket to make their way to the Final Four.

After two close games that were decided at the buzzer - both opponent misses - the scenario was flipped as Duke had the opportunity for the last shot and a chance to either tie or win the game outright with a 3-pointer.

Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, neither happened.

“Just that it’s over,” RJ Barrett said when asked what was going through his mind when Cassius Stanley ran out the clock. “Every day we came in, worked our butts off, and we really gave everything that we had all season long, and we had so much success.”

Zion Williamson, clearly overcome with emotion, added to Barrett’s thoughts.

“A lot is obviously going through our mind right now,” he said. “I’m very upset, obviously, because we wanted to go to the Final Four.

“And just look around the locker room and see your teammates, your brothers. And you just think this group probably never will play together.”

Leading up to Duke’s final opportunity, the Blue Devils seemingly had the game under control. After falling behind by four points, 63-59, with 4:07 on the clock Duke put together a rally, scoring seven unanswered points. The mini-run put Duke ahead 66-63 with just 1:41 left on the clock.

That’s when things began to take a turn for the worse. Tom Izzo called a timeout and the Spartans executed flawlessly out of the break, getting a layup from Xavier Tillman to cut Duke’s lead to just one.

On Duke’s next possession, Barrett found his way into the paint, but was unable to finish. Now with just 43 seconds remaining, Michigan State was in a position to regain the lead.

And the Spartans did exactly that when Kenny Goins drilled a 3-point basket with 34 seconds remaining. Just like that, Duke’s lead had been erased. Duke pushed the ball up the floor following the make, eventually finding an open shot from the perimeter for Barrett.

Up to that point, Barrett had been Duke’s best shooter in the game, hitting 3-of-5 from long range. This time the shot came up short. Then came Duke’s final chance to tie or win.

Barrett was again the guy with the ball in his hands, and after a strong drive to the hoop, the freshman was fouled by Tillman. Considering Duke’s struggles from the free throw line, this was not exactly the best case scenario.

He missed the front end, putting the Blue Devils in a difficult situation with just five seconds remaining. Ironically, Barrett tried to miss the second free throw and give his team an opportunity for an offensive rebound, but the shot went through the basket.

“We didn’t have enough fouls and they wouldn’t be shooting,” Barrett said. “I tried to miss it and it went in.”

Duke fouled Michigan State on the inbounds, but were short of putting the Spartans on the line. That left the Blue Devils with one option. Get a steal. Despite denying the ball, Cassius Stanley found a way to slip the Duke defense and closeout the game.

“We switched and tried to get the steal and Cassius got in front of me and he got open,” Barrett said.

“Cassius Winston just really took over. Every time they got down, he came up with a huge play. 20 and 10 - that’s incredible. Their defense was amazing, so they’re a great team and they played great today.”

Though Barrett has been huge in clutch moments more often than not this season, Duke’s most dominant option, Zion Williamson, never had an opportunity to put his stamp on the final moments. The freshman star took his last shot at 1:41, a layup that put the Blue Devils ahead 66-63.

Barrett finished with 21 points, six rebounds and six assists. Williamson concluded his Duke career with a 24-point, 14 rebound, three block, three steal effort.

Javin DeLaurier put together one of his best performances as a Blue Devil, scoring 10 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and blocking three shots.

“Obviously my teammates attract a lot of attention, and I just tried to do what I could to help us win,” he said. “But unfortunately it wasn’t enough.”

The Blue Devils have been notorious for slow starts throughout the season, particularly during the NCAA tournament, when they saw each time on their schedule fight them toe-to-toe through the first 20 minutes of action.

Sunday’s matchup with the Spartans was no different. In fact, the first 10 minutes Duke could never seem to find a flow on either end of the floor, most notably on offense. Duke opened the half going just 4 of its first 14 from the floor, falling behind by as many as seven points in the process.

To make matters worse, Michigan State was able to develop its lead despite not shooting the ball particularly well either.

Things began to change with just under 12 minutes to go, as the Blue Devils began to knockdown open looks and gain some much needed confidence. In the process, Duke outscored the Spartans 21-5, to jump ahead 30-21 with 5:22 remaining in the first half.

Duke appeared to be in complete control, and poised to extend its lead.

Michigan State had other ideas, though. After a Tom Izzo timeout, the Spartans regained their poise, and began working much more efficiently on offense. As the Spartans started seeing shots go down, their defense picked up as well.

So much so that Duke didn’t score another point in the half all while Michigan State found opportunities to get out and run. As Michigan State strung together several strong offensive possessions, Duke started to come apart.

Williamson and Barrett made uncharacteristic mistakes, resulting in four first half turnovers apiece. That contributed to 10 first half Duke turnovers - miscues that Michigan State turned into 15 points. While Michigan State was forcing Duke into mistakes, the Blue Devils failed to turn the veteran Spartans over, forcing just two, resulting in only three Blue Devil points.

Overall, Duke forced just seven Michigan State turnovers, while handing the ball over 17 times.

“If that guy doesn’t hit that shot at the end, that question isn’t being asked,” Jones said of a question asked about not being able to force turnovers. “They were able to just execute that play and hit that shot down the stretch. We had a shot. We were right there. Even with them not turning the ball over, we still did what we had to do and gave ourselves a shot.”