An Alabama team boasting the nation's highest-scoring offense was supposed to present a challenge for Duke.
It did not. Duke's defense handcuffed Alabama's high-octane attack while its own offense put on another clinic in an 85-65 win Saturday night in the East regional final on Saturday. With the win, Duke advanced to its first Final Four since 2022.
Armed with Player of the Year candidate Cooper Flagg and arguably the best supporting cast in the nation, Duke will be the favorite in San Antonio to cut down the nets.
The Blue Devils demonstrated why Saturday with an overwhelming effort on both sides of the floor. It did so despite an off game on offense from Flagg. The Blue Devils simply leaned on that supporting cast that would add up to a title contender with or without its freshman phenom.
Duke established the tone with three early 3-pointers en route to a 13-5 lead. It extended its lead to 35-22 and threatened to run away with the game before Alabama responded to cut its deficit to 46-37 by halftime.
But Alabama never threatened to overtake. It cut the Duke lead to 65-58, but got no closer than seven points after halftime. A 13-0 run extended Duke's lead to 78-58 and put to bed any long-shot hopes of an Alabama comeback in the game's final minutes.
Duke stifles nation's highest-scoring offense
While Duke's offense found success inside and out, Alabama's struggled to find the open looks from deep that it used just one game earlier to set the NCAA tournament record for made 3s with 25 against BYU in the Sweet 16 round.
Instead, Alabama repeatedly hoisted contested looks from 3 or settled for inefficient mid-range jumpers that stood little chance of keeping pace. Good looks in the paint were also hard to come by. Duke's lineup that's the tallest in the nation by average height presented too many challenges. It added up to a 35.4% shooting rate from the field and 8-of-32 effort (25%) from 3-point distance by Alabama.
All-America guard Mark Sears, who hit 10 3-pointers in Alabama's record-setting night against BYU, finished Saturday with six points and six assists. He shot 2 of 12 from the field and 1 of 5 ...
