NEWARK, N.J. — Duke basketball smothered and covered Alabama with stifling defense to snag a spot at the Final Four in San Antonio.
After saying the top-seeded Blue Devils’ defense “sucked” against Arizona, Kon Knueppel and his teammates got back to their sticky defensive ways, switching everything to shut down Alabama in an 85-65 blowout in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
Around 18,793 fans, the official attendance Saturday night at Prudential Center, got to watch Duke’s defensive clinic against the Crimson Tide (28-9), who scored seven points in the final 7 ½ minutes.
Using its length and size as the tallest roster in the nation, Duke (35-3) sent wave after wave of defenders at Alabama star guard Mark Sears, who nearly had as many turnovers (5) as points (6) on 2 of 12 shooting. The Crimson Tide was 8 of 23 (25%) from 3-point range and shot 35% overall.
“We just got back to what we do,” said Knueppel, who had a game-high 21 points to go with 5 rebounds and 5 assists. “Khaman (Maluach) did an excellent job switching 1-5, after they hit a couple pick-and-pop 3s there early in the first half. I thought that frustrated them, made them play a little bit more 1-on-1 and take some tougher ones that they normally don’t want to take. And then, just getting the rebound, holding them to one shot.”
As Knueppel pointed out, 7-foot-2 center Khaman Maluach was among the key reasons Duke was able to hold Alabama to its second-lowest scoring game of the season.
“We have a luxury to have a guy with Khaman, where he can really play different coverages. We have a 7'2 guy switching onto one of the best guards in the country, and he's doing a pretty good job moving his feet,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said.
“Same thing, we had him in a deep drop (coverage), as well, because just trying to protect our paint more and have our guards really fight over. And then (Aiden) Sherrell came in and hit two (3-pointers). So we had to change that.”
Scheyer added that Duke didn’t “take the bait” of getting spaced out by Alabama, which scored 113 points and knocked down 25 three-pointers in the Sweet 16. Duke’s third-year coach was impressed with his team’s ability to avoid “getting spooked” by the Tide’s ...
