Jon Scheyer had a painstakingly lengthy offseason to consider simply how slim the margins are between victory and defeat. The nightmares of blowing a 14-point lead within the Last 4 to Houston, together with a final minute from the depths of hell, won’t ever totally go away.
One has to surprise if these all-too-familiar ideas began to reverberate on Tuesday when No. 15 Florida erased a 15-point deficit to take a 66-64 lead with 35 ticks remaining on a Boogie Fland pull-up trey. Ten seconds prior, Pat Ngongba had taken one of the vital ill-advised pictures a Duke participant had taken all season to crack open the window for a gutsy Florida comeback.
This time, Duke made these three huge performs in successful time that befell it final April within the Alamodome. Jon Scheyer dialed up a ghost display for Cameron Boozer to seek out Isaiah Evans for the go-ahead triple. Caleb Foster, just like the veteran warrior he is turning into, turned it as much as drive a Boogie Fland turnover, and Maliq Brown deflected a Duke inbound cross to seal a victory on the buzzer.
No. 4 Duke 67, No. 15 Florida 66.
Stacking successful performs. Video games like Tuesday can show to function as each day deposits for a younger crew like these Blue Devils to study what it takes (and what to keep away from) to beat determined outfits like Florida.
Not solely did Duke enhance to 9-0, however it discovered a more in-depth. Duke’s late-game offense was a supply of frustration a number of instances a 12 months in the past, however Boozer confirmed the toughness and smarts to be an ultra-valuable fulcrum in crunch time. His nothing-but-net trey with 2:10 remaining was monumental. So was his robust left-hand drive and end over Florida’s Rueben Chinyelu, who’s aptly described as a mountain of a person.
Boozer poured in 29 factors to go together with six rebounds and two extra dimes. He entered the evening averaging over 33 factors created an evening. He scored 29 and assisted on six extra factors to complete with a mind-blowing 35 factors created. It is one of many prime marks in all the sport.
Scheyer additionally confirmed simply how far he is come. Duke scored 18 monster factors after timeouts on this one. That is tied for probably the most of any recreation of the Scheyer period. Duke not solely has one of the vital gifted rosters within the sport, however it additionally has one sharp offensive coordinator in Scheyer.
Hopefully, the ice packs and ice baths in Durham are as much as par as a result of the Blue Devils will want ’em to heal up from Tuesday’s brawl forward of Saturday’s showdown with ultra-physical No. 8 Michigan State.
They’re going to head to East Lansing with an unblemished document and an outlined nearer in its bullpen. Oh, what a wonderful feeling that have to be.
