KANSAS CITY, Mo. - One of the concerns for Duke coming into this season was the lack of a go-to scorer in close-game situations after the departure of J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams.
That fear was fully realized in a 73-62 loss to No. 13 Marquette in the CBE finals Tuesday night in Kansas City. The Golden Eagles (6-0) closed the game on a 15-4 run over the last six minutes as the ninth-ranked Blue Devils (4-1) struggled to find an offensive threat.
Duke looked to Josh McRoberts to provide that threat, consistently feeding the ball inside to the sophomore in the second half. But McRoberts could not deliver, going 0-for-5 from the field with two turnovers in the final eight minutes before being pulled with 1:17 remaining.
McRoberts has often operated from the perimeter so far this season, but in the second half the 6-foot-11 forward served as the Blue Devils' main post threat and received most of his looks from around the block. He finished 4-for-16 from the field, with many of his misses coming inside.
"He hasn't been down there enough because of Greg's injury and helping out with Jon [Scheyer]," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "And so all of a sudden you're in a game like this in a position that you haven't trained as much, we haven't practiced it as much with Greg being out for a month. But he didn't close the deal.
"I told him, 'Sometimes you've got to lose. Sometimes you have to look bad before you look good.'"
Junior DeMarcus Nelson, who scored a career-high 23 points in the Blue Devils' semifinal win over Air Force, did not step into the leading role either. With the Blue Devils down nine and just under three minutes remaining, Nelson tried to go one-on-one with Jerel McNeal, but the junior lost the ball out of bounds driving to the basket.
Nelson got off to a tremendous start with 11 points in the first six minutes of the game, but Marquette's defense held him to two points the rest of the way.
"We quit giving him open shots for one thing," Marquette head coach Tom Crean said of the adjustments guarding Nelson. "We got screwed up in a few of our rotations, and if you make a mistake, Duke's good enough to make you pay. And so we adjusted-we kept him in front of us. I don't think he got the looks he got early, and we were able to lock in."
Marquette, on the other hand, did not have a problem finding a source of scoring. Sophomore guard Dominic James scored 25 points, including eight during the Golden Eagles' clinching 11-0 run. The tournament MVP hit a three-pointer and, on the next possession, converted a three-point play to turn a 61-58 game into a nine-point Marquette lead with just under four minutes remaining.
"Their perimeter is their strength, and that was a real telling factor in tonight's game," Krzyzewksi said. "James is a really good player. He's stocky, he's strong, he's got great will, and Tom [Crean] does a really good job of allowing him to use his talents. He reminds me a little bit of Jason Williams in his strength."
Duke got off to fast start for the second straight game, jumping out to a 15-8 lead on the back of Nelson's strong play. But the Blue Devils could not continue their momentum in large part because their own mistakes. The young team, which has produced more turnovers than assists in every game this season, had 19 turnovers to just nine assists. Duke's defense, on the other hand, was only able to force nine turnovers.
"When you have a minus-10 differential in turnovers, you're not going to win," Krzyzewski said. "We haven't been in a game like that-where you're playing a really good team that really wants it and is forcing tempo. And hopefully we'll learn from it."
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