BEDEVILED: Duke’s Quinn Cook has no path to the basket, thanks to Lehigh’s John Adarms, during the Blue Devils’ stunning 75-70 loss last night in an NCAA tournament South Region second-round game in Greensboro, NC. (
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GREENSBORO, N.C. — Duke is done.
The second-seeded Blue Devils were bounced from the NCAA tournament Friday night after falling 75-70 to the 15th-seeded Lehigh Mountain Hawks at Greensboro Coliseum, in one of the most stunning upsets in tournament history.
Before Friday, a No. 15 seed hadn’t won a tournament game in 11 years, but Lehigh became the second team of the day, following Norfolk State’s shocker, while claiming its first ever tournament victory after four failed appearances. Lehigh will play the Xavier in Sunday’s in a South Regional third-round game.
“It’s one of the best feelings in the world,” said C.J. McCollum, who led Lehigh with 30 points, six assists and six rebounds.
Mackey Mcknight added, “It’s a dream comes true. Right when the clock hit zero, I just started crying.”
McCollum, the Patriot League Player of the Year, began the game with an amazing amount of confidence, which grew with each possession. Duke had no answers to slow down the speedy junior guard who put the team on his back by aggressively attacking the rim, shooting 9-of-24 from the field and 10-of-16 on free throws.
“They had the best player on the court tonight,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “He’s really one of the outstanding players in the country. You can see why tonight.”
Despite playing an hour away from campus in front of thousands of their fans, the Blue Devils never looked comfortable. Missing forward Ryan Kelly with a sprained right foot, Duke struggled offensively, shooting 6-of-26 on 3-pointers. Mason Plumlee provided the only consistency, leading the team with 19 points, making all nine shots, with 12 rebounds and three blocks.
The Mountain Hawks were never intimidated, rallying around a small contingent of fans, which soon morphed into thousands as North Carolina supporters in powder blue cheered against their rivals, with many holding brown “Go Lehigh” signs.
“One of the main concepts that I wanted to establish with our players on the onset of our journey was to suspend disbelief, not listen to everybody as they picked Duke to advance,” Lehigh coach Brett Reed said. “This is March Madness. Upsets happen. It’s why the nation really appreciates this tournament.”
Early in the second half, Duke took its biggest lead at 37-32, but Lehigh responded with a 7-0 run. The Mountain Hawks took the lead for good on Mcknight’s 3-pointer with 8:21 left to go up 50-49 and were buoyed by the energy from Gabe Knutson, who finished with 17 points and eight rebounds.
After trailing 67-59 with 47 seconds left, Duke cut the lead to three with 28 seconds left, but McCollum fought through the full-court press to find a streaking Jordan Hamilton for a wide-open dunk. McCollum then hit two free throws with 0.8 seconds left to seal the shocking upset.
“The game is a great game,” Krzyzewski said. “I’ve been in it for 37 years and it takes you to incredible highs and it also takes you to incredible lows. Tonight’s one of those lows.”
“There was some pressure on them when we came back and they always seemed to have an answer and were very bold. I thought that we started the game tentative. They were bold throughout and bold won.”
In the final seconds, McCollum walked towards the section of brown, pointing to the letters across his chest with a smile that could have stretched back to eastern Pennsylvania. They knew about Lehigh.
Now the rest of the country does, too.
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Led by Long Island native Tu Holloway’s 25 points, 10th-seeded Xavier pulled out a 67-63 win over seventh-seeded Notre Dame in the nightcap at Greensboro Coliseum.
Trailing by as many as eight in the second half, Holloway gave the Musketeers (22-12) their first lead of the half with less than four minutes left and then put Xavier ahead for good with a fadeaway bank shot with 24 seconds left to take a 64-63 lead, following an errant out of bounds pass from Notre Dame’s Eric Atkins.
Notre Dame (22-12), who was led by Jack Cooley’s 18 points, had a chance to tie the game down two with 2.8 seconds left, but Atkins’ first free throw on a one-and-one was disallowed after Jerian Grant was called for a lane violation. Pat Connaughton was then called for an intentional foul on the inbounds play, effectively ending the game.