What a crazy, intense game. During the day I was actually relaxed. Duke had a big size advantage and the way they'd played defense against Cal, Purdue and Baylor, and the way the Big Three had played offense picking apart West Virginia, I felt pretty comfortable. Then the game started...
It was a hard fought defensive game. Neither team led by more than seven the entire game. Duke led most of the game, but Butler's defense meant they couldn't pull away. The first half ended Duke 33, Butler 32
Duke kept the lead most of the game, but Butler kept clawing back. It was a one point ame with ten seconds left. Hayward, Butler's best player, drove the lane, faded from Zoubek and shot a high arcing shot...
The shot hit off the rim. Zoubek grabbed the rebound and was fouled. He made one, intentionally missed the other. Hayward grabbed the rebound and shot it from midcourt as the buzzer sounded...
It was on line...but bounced off the rim.
DUKE 61, Butler 59
DUKE WINS!!! DUKE WINS!!!
What a tough game! Duke held Butler to 32% shooting, 31% from 3- and kept their top scorers -- Hayward and Mack -- to 7-of-25 shooting. Still they were right there. Butler outrebounded Duke in the first half and seemed to be quicker to the ball, driving in the lane and getting close shots. And they kept Duke from going off. Nolan Smith was 5-of-18. Scheyer was 5-of-12. Only Kyle Singler was able to score, going 7-of-14 for 19 points. Duke shot 41%, but only 27.8% from 3. But Duke was stronger on the boards in the second half and didn't let Butler turn them over for easy scores.
Still, what a great, heartbreaking, heart-attack inducing game. My hat is off to Butler. If they hadn't been playing Duke I would have been rooting for them. They are now officially my favorite non-ACC team.
And congrats to DUKE!!!! GO BLUE DEVILS!!!
It was a senior and junior laden team. The rise of Zoubek after years of injuries. The play of the big three -- Smith, Scheyer and Singler. You can stop one, but no one stopped them all. It was Thomas and Zoubek in the post. It was a team that lost two key starters from last year (Henderson and Williams), and yet with five players from that same team that got trounced by Villanova in the Sweet 16, they came together, played like a team, got tough on defense and now...
DUKE IS THE 2010 NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment