Duke falls to Virginia in final moments
Duke fell to Virginia after Virginia connected on a 3-pointer in the final seconds.
DURHAM, N.C. — It’s not easy to come out of an emotional victory against your biggest rival, like the one Duke put together against North Carolina on Saturday. It’s even more difficult when it’s just two nights later that you must lace it up and take the floor again. Then it goes to another level when your opponent is Virginia.
On this night, Duke matched the intensity at times, but was not able to sustain it throughout. The result was a heartbreaking 69-68 loss to Virginia, who got a 3-point bucket from Reece Beekman in the final seconds to lift the Cavaliers.
The shot put Duke’s back against the wall with just 1.1 second remaining, and ultimately buried them in the upset.
What of that outcome was a result of a failure to put UNC in the past? A little, perhaps. But not in the sense that Duke was caught savoring its victory and patting itself on the back.
The Blue Devils’ level of intensity in the second half can debunk a lot of that, however, the overall picture and need to grow hungrier in big moments such as this was a point of discussion for Mike Krzyzewski following the game.
“What my guys don’t understand is these teams are fighting for NCAA bids,” Krzyzewski said. “They have such a rich tradition. They’re an outstanding program. And they’re playing really well. But teams are hungry.
“We’ve got to be hungry after we’ve eaten. We got a big meal, we’ve got to be hungry again. And I thought they were hungrier, tougher than we were tonight. No question.”
Duke’s initial response -- the first few minutes of the game -- indicated the team was not mentally in the place it needed to be to compete with a tough, defensive minded Cavaliers team. But after a quick timeout just 3:40 into the game, Krzyzewski was able to get his team’s attention on the task at hand.
At least to a degree.
After falling behind 8-2, the Blue Devils responded and seemingly was prepared to battle. In fact, six minutes later, Duke had taken its first lead at 17-15. The Blue Devils appeared to be mentally present and in position to push the Cavaliers.
Instead, Virginia took Duke’s initial response and ratcheted up their physicality and intensity to even another notch. Subsequently, Duke quickly found itself trailing by as many as 12 points with just 2:18 remaining in the first half.
Duke then flirted once again with finding a rhythm and control of the game thanks to a 9-2 run to closeout the half. Instead of trailing by double digits at the break, the Blue Devils were behind by just five, at 34-29.
“In the first half we were not able to overcome them,” Krzyzewski said. “We had to do a whole bunch of things to massage that game to where we’re close at halftime. They’re a team you need a couple days to prepare for because they run their stuff so well. They have two really outstanding guards, who don’t turn it over. Their precision — (Kihei) Clark and Beekman is one of the things that makes them really good. And they carved us up.
“Twenty of the first 22 points were from the paint. They had 52 for the game. It was more cuts and we went zone and a couple different things and then in the second half I thought we played hard and we were able to get stops. We drove harder and took advantage of their fouls. So we got to the line and completed them. We put ourselves in a position to win.”
As Krzyzewski noted, the second half was a bit of a different story — though not completely. Duke did regain some of its fight, something Mark Williams said the Blue Devils did not come ready with.
For his part, he did what he could, particularly in the second half when he scored 12 of his team-high 16 points. He was super aggressive, and consequently, whether all were justified or not, found himself in a tough position with fouls.
He picked up his third foul fewer than two minutes into the second half and later his fourth only 4:59 in.
Those were critical, as Krzyzewski was forced to pull him from the game with 15:01 to go. Prior to the four fouls, Williams had almost singlehandedly kept the Blue Devils in the game.
He scored seven points, grabbed two rebounds, blocked one shot and drawn three fouls on the Cavaliers during that stretch.
Williams ultimately sat for the next 5:14, and played just nine total minutes in the second half. His absence was evident.
That said, Duke did fight to stay in the game, even climbing to within one point. So, the chances were there on multiple occasions. A primary reason for that was the play of Trevor Keels, who scored all 12 of his points in the second half -- more specifically, the final 11:59 of the game.
Keels used his physicality to his advantage, attacking the hoop and drawing contact around the rim. And while his play, along with big shots from Jeremy Roach, Wendell Moore Jr. and impressive plays from Theo John, Duke was able to gain control of the game late.
But according to Krzyzewski, two plays cost his team. The most frustrating one clearly resided in the Cavaliers last possession of the night — the one that saw Beekman hit the game winner.
“We made two bad plays,” he said. “Two really bad plays. One on offense and one on defense. And that’s all it takes. They made plays. It’s a tough loss because of how it ended, but we were not worthy of winning most of the game. We finally got the lead and had an opportunity, but they’re good.
“If you get the ball in the lane you have got to get a shot. You have to get a shot and we weren’t able to get a shot. And we missed a defensive assignment on the last play. When you do that, you lose. But we’re collectively responsible for this. I’m not blaming anybody. I’m just telling you, we make two plays then we win. But we start out better we win, too.”