Despite the Duke Blue Devils maintaining a healthy halftime lead as they headed to the locker room during their Elite Eight matchup against the Alabama Crimson Tide, freshman guard Kon Knueppel wanted more from his team.
Knueppel, who led Duke in scoring during the first half, was tasked with the offensive charge by the Blue Devils as he earned 11 points and one assist. Meanwhile, stars Cooper Flagg and Khaman Maluach combined for three blocks as Duke shut down Alabama's offensive attempts.
"We’re doing a good job switching and making them take tough ones," Knueppel said of his team's defensive stands.
However, Knueppel knew that his team could do even better, entering the matchup with a 34-3 record and winning the ACC title.
"We're being a little loose a the ball. It’s not necessarily anything they're doing, but we’ve just gotta be a little better," Knueppel said.
For context, the Alabama squad that Duke faced was coming off a record-setting game against the BYU Cougars in the Sweet 16, where the Crimson Tide scored a record-setting 25 three-point shots, led by point guard Marcus Sears, who scored 10 of his own.
At halftime, Duke held Alabama to a minimal 37 points while scoring 46 points of its own. Flagg, the star freshman and arguably the best player in the country, joined Knueppel in double-digit scoring after the first 20 minutes with 10 points of his own.
The winner of the Elite Eight matchup would move on to face the winner of the Houston-Tennessee matchup, which the Cougars and the Volunteers were scheduled to play on Sunday, March 30.