Duke basketball falls to Arizona in NIT championship

NEW YORK—Jabari Parker and the Blue Devils just could not get their shots to fall.

On a night that Parker struggled, No. 6 Duke fell to the balanced attack of the No. 4 Wildcats, losing 72-66 in the championship game of the NIT Season Tip-Off at Madison Square Garden.

" It was a physical game," Duke senior guard Tyler Thornton said. "I think we matched their physicality and their intensity. They hit big shots and we didn’t hit shots. They were able to open the game up and once they opened it up we weren’t able to get back into it."

Playing at the World's Most Famous Arena in a game that was delayed nearly an hour due to the triple-overtime marathon played by Alabama and Drexel in the third-place game, the two powerhouse programs traded blows throughout the contest. The game featured 11 ties and eight lead changes in the first half alone.


Duke (6-2) made one more run when a pretty Cook feed found Parker for an and-one under the basket to cut the lead to five with 1:46 to play, but the Wildcats held on to secure the victory.

Although Duke and Arizona posses two of the best freshmen in the country, Parker and Aaron Gordon weren't particularly impressive in the first half. Gordon attempted just three shots, scoring two points to go along with three rebounds. He was plagued by foul trouble, limiting him to just 11 minutes in the period.

Parker, usually an efficient scorer and a 60.0 percent shooter, struggled to get anything going early. The Chicago native started the game 1-for-7 before four late hoops gave him 11 points for the half. Gordon ended the night with 10 points and seven rebounds. Parker failed to reached the 20-point mark for the first time this season, pouring in 19 points, but on 7 -of- 21 shooting.

With Gordon and Parker kept under wraps in the first half, both teams needed a different player to step up. For Arizona, that man was Ashley. The sophomore had his way in the opening period, scoring 11 of his 13 points in the first half on 5-of-7 shooting. Ashley entered the game averaging just 10.7 points. Duke's offensive spark came from its point guard, Cook. The junior had the touch early in the half, scoring eight points on 4-of-5 shooting in 13 minutes of action. He would take just four more shots in the game, most with the contest all-but-over.

Duke got the best of the Wildcats at the start of the second half, holding Arizona without a field goal for the first 6:33 of the period, a streak that was broken when Rondae Hollis-Jefferson finally put home the first hoop for his squad. But the Blue Devils were unable to manufacture a significant lead, letting the Wildcats tie the game on a Nick Johnson triple with 11:10 left to play. A little more than two minutes later, Arizona was on top for good.

“Some shots that we took went out that could have pushed the lead up, and Gordon hit a big three to cut it to one and we went back and forth from there," Cook said. "Nick Johnson hit some tough ones and they kind of took over from there.”

Rodney Hood would not let Duke go away quietly after the Wildcats made their move. In addition to a three-point play shortly after Arizona took the lead, Hood buried a triple with 6:19 to play to stop the 20-5 Arizona run. Hood led the team in scoring with 21 on 8-of-14 shooting and added a team-best eight rebounds. Increased defensive tenacity late and a couple of timely hoops kept things interesting inside the two-minute mark, but the deficit was too large for the Blue Devils to overcome.

The Blue Devil defense—much maligned after the team's near-loss to Vermont last week—continued to show improvement along with the team's rebounding. Arizona's starting backcourt of Johnson and T.J. McConnell shot a combined 6-for-17, and big man Kaleb Tarczewski managed just two field goals all night.

" If we could take a positive from this loss—this weekend—I’d definitely say our defense and our defensive rebounding is improving," Thornton said.

Ultimately, the difference in the game came down to which team made shots. The Wildcats made tough shot after tough shot, but Duke couldn't get its looks to go down.

“The offense was fine," Thornton said. "We got the looks that we wanted that we’ve been hitting all year. We just didn’t hit them tonight.”