ATLANTA - It was quintessential Duke basketball-the late-game blocked shots and offensive rebounds, the six-point swing that killed the opponent's momentum, the hard-nosed defense for a full 40 minutes.
But this time, the team making all of the big plays wore purple and gold instead of royal blue and white. LSU (26-8) beat the Blue Devils, 62-54, Thursday night by making the type of plays that Duke (36-4) built its reputation on.
The Tiger defense hounded Blue Devil superstar J.J. Redick all night, holding him to a 11 points, which matched his season low, and LSU forwards Tyrus Thomas and Glen Davis dominated the game's final stages.
"I know we're not-we weren't ever a dominant team," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We knew that, and so things have to go right for us to win."
Little had gone right for the Blue Devils by the time 38 seconds remained. But a pair of free throws by Redick had cut LSU's lead to one, 55-54, and Duke still had a chance to steal a bid to the Elite Eight. Twenty-six seconds later, Thomas and Davis had crushed those chances.
The inbounds pass after Redick's free throws went to Thomas. With Redick chasing him to try and foul to stop the clock, Thomas pushed the ball up court. Blue Devil forward Shelden Williams stepped in front of Thomas at midcourt, but the redshirt freshman cut in between Duke's pair of All-American seniors and had a free path to the rim. His two handed dunk increased LSU's lead to three.
Freshman point guard Greg Paulus drove to the basket on Duke's next possession. He got off a left-handed layup, but Thomas came from the weak side to block the shot.
"Once you step on the court, you're no longer a freshman, a sophomore, a junior or a senior-you're a ballplayer," Thomas said. "We didn't blame mistakes on being young. We just played hard."
LSU's Darrel Mitchell grabbed the loose ball, and Paulus fouled him. With the Tigers in the double bonus, Mitchell made the first shot, then missed the second. But by then, it was Davis' turn to take over.
The 310-pound sophomore, nicknamed Big Baby, grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled by McRoberts. Davis made the first free throw to increase the Tigers' lead to 59-54 but his second attempt clanked off the back rim. With every LSU player away from the lane and back on defense before Davis' attempt, the rebound was Duke's for the taking.
But the ball bounced straight to Davis, who was fouled again by McRoberts, the Duke freshman's fifth personal. Davis made one of the two shots to make the score 60-54 with 19 seconds remaining.
When Redick missed a three-pointer on the other end, the game was effectively over.
The end-of-game events served as redemption for Thomas and Davis, who battled foul trouble and were mostly ineffective on offense throughout most of the game. Thomas picked up his fourth foul with 12:44 left in the second half and played just 25 minutes in the contest. Davis played just 27 minutes, picking up his fourth personal with 8:47 to go.
But when it really counted, the pair of underclassmen came through.
"Things didn't go my way today-they didn't," Davis said. "I just wanted to do something to turn the game around, to help out the team. And at that moment I saw the opportunity where I can get a rebound, and I went and got it-twice."
If Davis and Thomas made the end-game plays that mattered most, Mitchell may have made the defining mid-game play. With 8:47 to play in the second half, the Blue Devils were in the midst of a patented Duke run, a 10-0 spurt spanning 3:23 that turned a five-point Tiger lead into a five-point Blue Devil advantage.
McRoberts rebounded a missed free throw by DeMarcus Nelson and kicked it out to Redick, who was wide open on the right wing. The senior guard's three-point attempt-which may have been a kill shot if it had gone down-rattled out.
On the other end, Mitchell nailed a three-pointer, completing a six-point swing.
"It was real big," Mitchell said. "It got us back to where we were and our intensity level. We knew they were going to give us a good punch, and we wanted to fight through, and that shot got us going again."
All game long, the Tigers' defensive effort-especially that of Garrett Temple, who shut down Redick, and Thomas, who blocked and altered numerous shots-stymied the Blue Devils. Duke's 54-point output was its lowest since 1996, and its 27.7 shooting percentage was more than 12 percentage points worse than the team's previous season low.
Thomas finished with five blocks, but his overall effect on the defensive end was much greater. His athleticism and timing caused the Blue Devils to alter their shots-they missed several layups that they otherwise might have made.
"It's the first team we played all year that could really block shots like that," Krzyzewski said. "It wasn't just their on-the-ball defense or off-the-ball. Their ability to block shots made us change some shots inside. And I don't know if we ever adjusted to that."
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