Duke and Louisville were so close for so long until Quinn Cook took charge.
The sophomore guard scored 11 of his 15 points in the final 7:46, including the Blue Devils’ last eight of the game, and No. 5 Duke beat No. 2 Louisville 76-71 last night in the championship game of the Battle 4 Atlantis in Paradise Island, Bahamas.
Neither team led by more than four points over the final 10 minutes until Cook’s final free throw with 6.7 seconds left made it 76-71.
Cook, who had six assists and just four turnovers against Louisville’s pressure defense, was 4 of 8 from the field and made all six of his free throws. The tournament MVP started his closing run when he took a long inbounds pass from Mason Plumlee and scored to give Duke a 70-68 lead with 1:14 left. Every time the Cardinals scored, Cook answered. His biggest hoop was a jumper with 3 seconds left on the shot clock that made it 72-67 with 27 seconds to go.
Plumlee had 16 points and seven rebounds for Duke (6-0). Peyton Siva had 19 points for the Cardinals (5-1).
In other Big 4 Atlantis games: .
* Laurence Bowers had 14 points and 11 rebounds and Phil Pressey had 11 points and eight assists, leading No. 13 Missouri (5-1) to a 68-65 win over VCU (3-3) in the third-place game.
* Chris Crawford and Joe Jackson, two of Memphis’ better players who had been struggling, scored 18 and 15 points, respectively, and the No. 19 Tigers (3-2) avoided losing all three games in the Battle 4 Atlantis, beating Northern Iowa (3-3).
Cincinnati 77, Oregon 66
In Las Vegas, Cashmere Wright made five 3-pointers and scored 17 points to lead No. 22 Cincinnati (6-0) to a win over Oregon (5-1) in the championship game of the Global Sports Classic.
Creighton 87, Arizona St. 73
In Las Vegas, Doug McDermott scored 27 points with nine rebounds to lead No. 14 Creighton (6-0) over Arizona State (4-1) to a win the Las Vegas Invitational.
UNLV 82, Iowa State 70
In Las Vegas, freshman Anthony Bennett scored 22 points and No. 18 UNLV (3-1) beat Iowa State (4-2) in the consolation game of the Global Sports Classic.
Coll. of Charleston 63, Baylor 59
In Waco, Texas, Willis Hall scored six consecutive points for the College of Charleston to break the final tie and the Cougars (3-2) held on for an upset at No. 24 Baylor (4-2).