2 months ago
Caleb Foster returned from a surgery ft and rescued Duke’s nationalist title hopes, helping nan top-seeded Blue Devils rally from a 10-point second-half shortage to hit St John’s 80-75 connected Friday nighttime and beforehand to nan Elite Eight.
Playing little than 3 weeks aft room connected his near foot, Foster scored each of his 11 points successful nan 2nd half. Isaiah Evans scored 25 points and Cameron Boozer had 22 points and 10 rebounds for nan Blue Devils (35-2), who extended nan nation’s longest progressive winning streak to 14, but not earlier nan tenacious Red Storm (30-7) pushed Duke to nan wire.
Duke will look either second-seeded UConn aliases third-seeded Michigan State successful Sunday’s East Region final.
The Blue Devils led 77-74 pinch 32.4 seconds near erstwhile Boozer missed nan beforehand extremity of a one-and-one. Zuby Ejiofor drew a foul astatine nan different extremity pinch 14.7 seconds to play, but nan St John’s standout made only 1 of 2 free throws.
Evans besides made 1 of two, giving nan Red Storm 1 past chance to necktie it, down 78-75. But Dylan Darling – whose layup astatine nan buzzer against Kansas successful nan erstwhile information put St John’s successful nan Sweet 16 – missed severely from good beyond nan arc. Boozer made 2 free throws pinch 1.5 seconds left.
It was conscionable nan 2nd nonaccomplishment for St John’s coach Rick Pitino successful 14 visits to nan Sweet 16 – and conscionable nan 2nd nonaccomplishment for this season’s Red Storm successful their last 23 games.
After a comparatively sure-handed first half, nan Blue Devils were sloppy to commencement nan second. A turnover by Boozer led to a dunk by Ejiofor. Then Boozer’s relative Cayden had nan shot stolen adjacent midcourt by Darling and Ejiofor dunked again to put St John’s up 48-44.
A Duke timeout did small to help. Another turnover by Cayden Boozer led to a layup by Ejiofor. Then nan 6ft 11in Ruben Prey sank his 4th three-pointer successful 4 attempts, and abruptly nan Red Storm were up 53-44.
Duke countered by inserting Foster for Cayden Boozer. He helped dependable nan discourtesy a bit, and nan Blue Devils went to a area connected defense. They fell down by 10 earlier opening their comeback.
A three-pointer by Evans put Duke up astatine 63-62. Bryce Hopkins answered pinch a 3 for St John’s. Then an acrobatic layup by Evans tied it – and nan pursuit was on.
Dillon Mitchell dunked location a missed free propulsion to put St John’s up 69-67. Then Evans made different three, causing Pitino to move his backmost successful evident disbelief. Cameron Boozer banked successful a changeable from a reliable perspective while being fouled pinch 3:06 to play. The free propulsion put nan Blue Devils up by four.
Foster’s pullup jumper but Duke up 75-69. Ejiofor responded pinch a 3 for St John’s, but Foster’s driving layup made it 77-72 pinch 1:27 left, putting nan Red Storm into desperation mode.
As expected, St John’s applied unit from nan start, contesting conscionable astir each inch of nan court. Duke had immoderate of nan aforesaid problems Kansas did successful nan erstwhile round, pinch inbounding nan shot an escapade early.
Eventually, nan Blue Devils settled successful and led 35-28 pursuing an 18-5 run, but 4 St John’s three-pointers later, nan Red Storm were up 40-39 astatine half-time.
After shooting conscionable 11 of 35 from agelong region against Kansas, St John’s was 9 of 18 successful nan first half Friday. That included a 3 by Mitchell, who was 0 for 14 from beyond nan arc connected nan season, and a 3-for-3 showing by Prey, who came successful averaging 4.1 points per game.
