PHILADELPHIA — With their gear packed up and their belongings prepped for the trip back to Durham, the Blue Devils sat pensively around the visitor’s locker room in Lincoln Financial Field. Scrawled in blue marker on the dry-erase board and printed on the back of their Final Four t-shirts was a subtle clue that conveyed the overall sentiments of the disappointed squad.
“EEE,” the quotation read—Extra Extra Empty.
“We played ’til we had nothing left,” Matt Danowski said. “We left it all out there, but unfortunately we just came out on the losing end.”
For the Blue Devils, much of the dissatisfaction with Monday’s 9-8 NCAA Championship loss to Johns Hopkins lies in the way they shot the ball in the second half. Although the offense was able to generate good opportunities and open looks, Duke was unable to finish its plays like it had against Maryland two days earlier.
“I was really disappointed how we shot the ball,” Pressler said. “We won the face-offs, we cleared the ball, we did everything else except put the ball into the goal.”
A large part of Duke’s offensive woes can be blamed on bad shot location. Instead of forcing the Blue Jays’ goalie Jesse Schwartzman to make saves, the Blue Devils frequently rocketed the ball right at his body. As a result, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player simply had to position himself well to keep Duke off the scoreboard.
“You’re hitting the goaltender, you’re shooting poorly,” Pressler said. “What we usually do is shoot it so it goes in or wide of the goal. That way, you get the ball back. Today, it was like we were one and done.”
Schwartzman recorded 12 saves in the contest, seven of which came after the halftime break. In addition, the sophomore goalkeeper saved 78 percent of Duke’s shots in the second half versus just 25 percent in the first.
Further compounding Duke’s problems was the excellent play of Johns Hopkins’ defense. After allowing the Blue Devils to take 10 shots in each of the first two quarters, the Blue Jays held Duke to just 11 shots in the entire second half. Johns Hopkins held Duke scoreless for the games’ final 28 minutes and 43 seconds.
“We had put in a game plan where we were going to do some ball-side adjacent sliding early, and they got one or two on us early,” Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala said. “We were a little concerned and when we called the time out we decided to switch back to what we do normally. Back to basics. Defense played great in the second half.”
Most impressive of all, however, was Blue Jays’ defenseman Chris Watson’s coverage of Zack Greer. After torching Maryland for four goals on Saturday, the ACC’s single-season record-holder for goals scored became a marked man Monday, and Greer’s stats showed it. Closely followed all afternoon, the freshman was only able to muster one shot and record a single assist.
“It’s tough to play in Zach’s position,” Danowski said. “He probably was the most concentrated-on player in the game today. They had a plan where they weren’t going to slide off of him. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a lot of opportunities position-wise for him to get goals.”
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