The Duke Basketball team defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies in the Sweet 16 to advance to the Elite 8 in the NCAA Tournament.
The basketball gods are shining down on the Duke Blue Devils because it happened again.
With 1.1 seconds to go, the Blue Devils led 77-75 and Virginia Tech was inbounding from underneath its own basket.
Justin Robinson threw a lob to Ahmed Hill who was wide open at the basket, but just couldn’t put the ball in the hoop to send the game into overtime.
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However, it shouldn’t have come down to that for many reasons, one being after missed 3-pointer by Hill, Kerry Blackshear Jr. chased down the offensive rebound in the corner, but stepped out of bounds.
The play was not reviewable.
But prior to that, Duke still led by two with Tre Jones at the line for a one-and-one and he missed the front end.
Free throws have been an issue all season, but it is hard to nitpick Jones’ evening because he was that good.
Pouring in a career high 22 points and five, yes five, made 3-pointers, Tre Jones looked like his brother Tyus on the perimeter tonight.
Jones also added eight rebounds, four assists, and a steal on the night.
A major reason why Jones had to show up dramatically on offense was the absence of Cam Reddish who is reportedly dealing with a knee injury and did not play tonight.
Reddish suffered the injury in practice on Thursday and could not recover on time to play night. His status for the Elite 8 is unknown.
Duke did get to see Jack White on the court for a few minutes, but he’s been dealing with a hamstring injury that he suffered in the ACC Championship and has not played since.
It was clear after a few seconds that White wasn’t fully healthy and after leaving in the first half, he did not return to the game.
Alex O’Connell got the start in replace of Reddish, and only scoring four points, surprisingly, O’Connell led the Blue Devils in defensive rebounds and total rebounds with six and seven, respectively.
Now let’s get into the duo that the nation is obsessed with in Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett.
Williamson led the way with 23 points, six rebounds, three blocks, an assists, and a steal, on 11-of-14 shooting.
Barrett had a very slow start to this game in the first half, but his picked up his play dramatically in the second half, finishing with 18 points, a career high 11 assists, and four rebounds.
Virginia Tech was led by Blackshear and his 18 points and 16 rebounds, 11 offensive.
Justin Robinson, Ahmed Hill, and Wabissa Bede all reached double figures for the Hokies.
Overall, Duke improves to 32-5 on the season and will face the familiar Tom Izzo and Michigan State on Sunday evening in the Elite 8 at with a tipoff at 5:05pm ET.
The Spartans cruised to a 80-63 win over LSU in the Sweet 16. Michigan State is also dealing with an injury situation as big man Nick Ward left the game after reaggravating his hand injury.