After going just 23-10 and spending a portion of the regular season unranked, the Blue Devils are headed back to the Sweet Sixteen. No. 4 seed Duke advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament Saturday with a 71-64 win against 12th-seeded Yale. The Blue Devils will head to Anaheim, Calif., for a Thursday matchup against the winner of Sunday's Oregon-St.Joseph's game.
Revisiting the three keys to the game:
- Make Mason lay the bricks: After scoring 31 points in the Bulldogs' upset of Baylor, the sophomore struggled early against bigger Duke defenders. Looking to get others involved, Mason attempted just four shots in the first half as his team fell behind by as many as 27. Although the guard facilitated the offense for his team as Yale embarked on a big second-half run, Mason was unable to get into the flow of the game offensively and finished with seven assists, but just eights points on 2-of-12 shooting,
- Stay out of foul trouble: For the first 20 minutes of the game, the Blue Devils played solid man-to-man defense against the Bulldogs and baited Yale into settling for perimeter jumpers instead of attacking the hoop. But after building up a big first-half lead, Duke toned down their aggressiveness a bit and it showed Yale sliced up the Blue Devil defense during a 22-6 run to begin the second-half. To make matters worse, forward Matt Jones struggled to move his feet defensively and fouled out with 1:08 remaining in the contest. Center Marshall Plumlee also faced his share of foul trouble as he played the final 8:52 of the game with four personal fouls.
- Exploit the size advantage: Although Plumlee and Brandon Ingram were bigger than the Bulldogs' post players, Duke relied on a perimeter attack to squash Yale's hopes of advancing to the first Sweet Sixteen in program history. With Ingram, sophomore Grayson Allen and freshman Luke Kennard firing on all cylinders, the Blue Devils did not look to Plumlee in the paint as much as they did in the win against UNC Wilmington. Duke's size advantage did not translate on defense as the Blue Devils surrendered 32 points in the paint and were out-rebounded 42-28, including 20 offensive rebounds for the Bulldogs.
Three key stats
- The Blue Devils go on a 26-4 run in the first half: With palpable energy in the building, Duke came out of the gates firing and quickly quieted the pro-Yale contingent at the Dunkin' Donuts Center. After a back-and-forth battle in the opening minutes of the game, the Blue Devils went on a game-changing run from the 12:23 to the 2:20 mark of the first half that seemingly put the game out of reach. Duke hit five 3-pointers during that time and played some of its best team defense of the season.
- Duke finishes 11-of-23 from beyond the arc: Although the Blue Devils were beat on the glass and struggled mightily on defense in the final 20 minutes, the 3-pointer was the big equalizer for Duke. After hitting just four triples against UNC Wilmington, the Blue Devils got five triples from Allen and three each from Ingram and Kennard. Perhaps more important than the number of 3-pointers Duke made is the fact that they shot a solid 48 percent from deep—a sign that the Blue Devils did not settle for bad threes.
- Yale shoots 42.4 percent from the floor in the second half: After Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski praised his team's defense in the first 20 minutes of the game, the Blue Devils reverted to some bad habits after halftime. On multiple occasions, Duke let opposing players cut to the basket unimpeded and finish in the paint for easy scores. To make matters worse, the Bulldogs' ability to pick apart the Blue Devil defense with good ball movement allowed them to mount a comeback on Duke—which allowed its poor defense to hurt its rhythm on offense.
Three key plays
- 0:43 remaining, first half: With the Bulldogs on a 6-0 run, freshman Derryck Thornton delivers a perfect in-bounds pass for a Plumlee alley-oop to stretch the Blue Devil lead back to 23 and give the team momentum heading into halftime.
- 7:56 remaining, second half: As Yale continues to bite into the Duke lead, Thornton turns it over, leading to another fast break for the Bulldogs. But the freshman doesn't give up on the play and hustles downcourt to force two misses on a 3-on-1 fastbreak opportunity that keeps the score at 58-49.
- 0:41 remaining, second half: After a miss by forward Brandon Sherrod on the second of two free throws, Ivy League Player of the Year Justin Sears tips in the miss over the out-stretched hand of Plumlee. The tip-in cut the Duke lead to just 67-64 and was just another example of the Blue Devils' struggles to rebound all afternoon.
And the Duke game ball goes to.... Brandon Ingram
With Yale keying in on Allen in the second half, Ingram stole the show for the Blue Devils in the knick of time. Ingram handled the ball down the stretch for Duke, which almost exclusively relied on the forward to take his man one-on-one late in the game. The Kinston, N.C., native was also a factor on the defensive end as his presence at the top of the Blue Devils' 1-3-1 zone forced the Bulldogs to look to the paint for baskets. The freshman finished the game with 25 points and five rebounds and is a big reason why the Blue Devils are headed to Anaheim, Calif.
And the Yale game ball goes to.... Brandon Sherrod
With Mason struggling to find his own offense and Sears limited by the Blue Devil bigs, Yale got the performance it needed from its senior. Sherrod finished with 22 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the floor and helped his team by grabbing seven rebounds. The forward also made his mark on defense, where he came away with three steals and a block. Although Sherrod's final time in a Bulldog jersey may not have gone the way he wanted, the senior helped his team put up a valiant effort.
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