Duke Left Stunned By UConn Three in Historic Collapse
The Duke Blue Devils led the UConn Huskies by 15 at halftime. They had a 19-point lead at one point. They lost on a last-second three. Not only that, but it came after a brutal turnover and was made from 35 feet away from the basket. It was as improbable a loss as there can be in college basketball.
Duke falls short on historic, epic comeback by UConn
For the second straight year, a Duke juggernaut has fallen short after a major comeback by an opponent. Last year, Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel (two top-four draft picks) led the Blue Devils to the Final Four, where they fell short after a Houston comeback. They led by 14 in the second half in that one.
This time, Cameron Boozer led the way for the Blue Devils to make it to the Elite Eight, but they fell short again. UConn engineered a 19-point second-half comeback that is somehow more improbable than that sentence reveals.
Duke had the ball and a two-point lead with under 20 seconds remaining. All they needed to do was not turn the ball over and not allow a three if they did. Both things impossibly happened in a matter of seconds, flipping the game on its head.
The sequence of events
Cayden Boozer, Cameron's twin brother, got the ball near midcourt after a couple of attempts to break the press by the Huskies. Instead of holding it to be fouled or passing back to someone open, he attempted to go over the double-team for the dagger bucket.
His pass was deflected and stolen by freshman Braylon Mullins. He passed the ball to Alex Karaban, who felt time dwindling down. He didn't have an open shot, so he passed back to Mullins, who was "open" from the logo.
With time running out, he hoisted a three from as deep as one can possibly imagine. It swished through with 0.3 seconds remaining. Duke could've had one jump shot in that time, but the long inbound was deflected, giving the Huskies an unfathomable win.
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Braylon Mullins, others discuss
Alex Karaban is the winningest player in UConn history, and Braylon Mullins thought he might get an assist on the game-winning shot. Instead, with Cameron Boozer lurking for Duke, Karaban surprised everyone and passed back to Mullins.
"I think we were all just trying to get the ball out of whoever had the ball in their hands and trying to make a play on the ball," Mullins said. "Silas made an incredible, incredible play, and everything else just happened as it is."
"I watched the trajectory of the ball and I said, this s**t might go in," UConn coach Dan Hurley said. Karaban added, "When I saw him release it, I was like, that really might go in. What about Mullins himself?
"Hell yeah," the Huskies star and new March Madness legend said. "You got to have the confidence." He certainly did, pulling up from 35 feet with some time to move in for a better shot. It didn't end up mattering, as he shattered the Duke fanbase's heart and sent the best team in college basketball home early.
Two times in one year?
The best team doesn't always win, but Duke was the best team in the sport. The loss gave them three on the year, and two of them came in improbable fashion. This UConn loss was after leading big the entire game until a final shot.
Similarly, UNC beat Duke in that fashion as well. They trailed all game, literally never even tying it up until there were less than two minutes remaining. And on the final possession of the game, Seth Trimble hit what amounted to a buzzer-beater.
This NCAA tournament loss is more crushing since it came off a turnover in the final seconds, but losing two such games in which Duke led by a lot most or all of the time until the literal last shot is almost impossible to make up.
