Defense, depth drive Duke past Alabama, into NCAA Tournament Final Four

Steve Wiseman, The News & Observer on Mar 29, 2025

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NEWARK, N.J. — Playing the game they were built to win, the Duke Blue Devils led from start to finish Saturday night to subdue Alabama and earn a trip to the Final Four.

Kon Knueppel scored 20 points and Cooper Flagg tallied 16 more with nine rebounds as top-seeded Duke shut down second-seeded Alabama’s potent offense to post a convincing 85-65 win in the NCAA Tournament East Regional final at Prudential Center.

Heading to the Final Four for the 18th time in program history but the first time under third-year head coach Jon Scheyer, Duke (35-3) advances to play the Midwest Regional champion, either top seed Houston or No. 2 seed Tennessee, on Saturday in the national semifinals at San Antonio’s Alamodome.

Having lost in the Elite Eight round a year ago, the Blue Devils left little room for worry this year to return to the Final Four for the second time in the past four seasons.

The Blue Devils shot 53.6%, with Tyrese Proctor scoring 17 points and Khaman Maluach 14 to join Knueppel and Flagg in double figures, as they ran their winning streak to 15 games.

After setting an NCAA Tournament record with 25 3-pointers in their 113-88 win over BYU on Thursday night, Alabama (28-9) made just 23 of 65 shots (35.4%) against Duke’s stingy defense. The Crimson Tide finished eight of 32 (25%) on 3-pointers.

Duke lead 46-37 at halftime and never saw its lead fall below six points in the second half. That didn’t mean the back of the game was without drama.

The Blue Devils struggled offensively over the first 10 minutes after halftime, hitting only 7 of 17 shots and missing all three 3-pointers. Alabama fought back to trail 65-58 when Labaron Philbon sank two free throws with 8:03 to play.

But Duke responded with a 13-0 run to pull away for good.

Flagg dribbled the shot clock down before making a move to the basket and hitting a baseline jumper. After two Alabama misses at the other end, Maluach gathered a loose ball under Duke’s basket and scored with 6:49 to play and pushed Duke’s lead back to double-digits at 69-58.

Sion James hit one free throw before Knueppel’s two free throws at 5:06 gave Duke a 72-59 lead. Alabama kept stacking empty possessions and Duke eventually pushed its lead to 78-58 before running out the clock.

With Flagg making a 3-pointer to start the scoring, and Duke hitting five of its first six shots, the Blue Devils never trailed and needed less than five minutes of play to open a 10-point lead.

Behind Knueppel’s 11 first-half points and 10 from Flagg, Duke led by as many as 13 before taking a 46-37 lead to intermission.

After that opening flurry, Alabama fought back and trimmed Duke’s lead to 23-19 with 11:17 remaining in the half on two Clifford Omoruyi free throws.

Duke, though, responded with a 12-3 run over the next four minutes. Knueppel started it by feeding Maluach for a basket at the rim. Knueppel’s 3-pointer, followed by his layup and free throw on a conventional three-point play put Duke in front 33-22. Flagg’s layup at the 6:48 mark extended Duke’s lead to 35-22.

At that point, Alabama had made just 7 of 22 shots (31.8%), including 4 of 14 3-pointers, while committing six turnovers.

The Crimson Tide found some offense to began a climb back, slicing Duke’s lead to 37-31 on Grant Nelson’s slam dunk at 3:34.

But the Blue Devils, sensing this could be an inflection point in the game, answered with a big play when Maliq Brown battled an controlled the rebound off a Flagg miss. Brown tossed the ball out to Caleb Foster, who drilled a 3-pointer at 3:06 pushing Duke’s lead back to 40-31.

Another key sequence occurred when Flagg found a seam through Alabama’s momentarily confused defense to get to the rim and score with 16.1 seconds left. Flagg was fouled and added a free throw for a 46-35 Duke lead.

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