Duke finds its closer after holding off Florida in final seconds of win in ACC/SEC Challenge
Jon Scheyer has had an extremely long offseason to reflect on how slim the margins between victory and defeat are. The nightmares of blowing a 14-point Final Four lead against Houston, including a final minute from the depths of hell, will never completely go away.
One has to wonder if those all-too-familiar thoughts began to reverberate Tuesday when No. 15 Florida erased a 15-point deficit to take a 66-64 lead with 35 ticks remaining on a Boogie Fland pull-up trey. Ten seconds before, Pat Ngongba had taken one of the most ill-advised shots a Duke player has taken all season to open the window for a courageous comeback in Florida.
This time, Duke made those three big plays in winning time that happened to him last April at the Alamodome. Jon Scheyer dialed up a ghost screen for Cameron Boozer to find Isaiah Evans for the go-ahead triple. Caleb Foster, like the veteran warrior he is becoming, turned up the volume to force a Boogie Fland turnover, and Maliq Brown deflected an inbounds pass from Duke to seal a victory at the buzzer.
No. 4 Duke 67, No. 15 Florida 66.
Stack winning games. Games like Tuesday may prove to be daily deposits for a young team like these Blue Devils to learn what it takes (and what to avoid) to beat desperate teams like Florida.
Not only did Duke improve to 9-0, it got closer. Duke’s late-game offense was a source of frustration on several occasions a year ago, but Boozer showed the toughness and intelligence to be an ultra-valuable fulcrum in critical moments. His clean three with 2:10 to play was huge. As is his strong left-hand drive and finish on Florida’s Rueben Chinyelu, who is rightly described as a mountain of a man.
Boozer scored 29 points, along with six rebounds and two more dimes. He entered the night averaging over 33 points per night. He scored 29 points and assisted on six extra points to finish with a mind-blowing total of 35 points created. That’s one of the best marks in all of sport.
Scheyer also showed how far he has come. Duke scored a monster 18 points after timeouts in this one. That’s tied for most of any game in the Scheyer era. Duke not only has one of the most talented teams in the sport, but it also has a successful offensive coordinator in Scheyer.
Let’s hope the ice blocks and ice baths in Durham are up to par, because the Blue Devils will need them to recover from Tuesday’s brawl before Saturday’s showdown with ultra-physical No. 8 Michigan State.
They will head to East Lansing with an unblemished record and a defined closer in its bullpen. Oh, what a glorious feeling that must be.
