PHILADELPHIA – Duke did not run anywhere last night.
No, the Blue Devils took a grinding path to their final destination. Embroiled in a rock-‘em, sock-‘em battle with Creighton, Duke showed it could slow the pace and flex some muscle, navigating through foul trouble as it drained the shot clock on possession after possession in a 66-50 Midwest Regional victory at Wells Fargo Center.
“That was the best defense we played this year,’’ Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “It was just tough to get baskets.’’
No. 2 seed Duke (29-5) moves on to the Sweet 16 in Indianapolis to face No. 3 seed Michigan State in a battle of perennial tournament heavyweights.
At one point late in the game Bill Cowher was shown on the jumbo screen and he was applauding, which was fitting, as this was a game a former football coach would appreciate. No thrills, plenty of spills. There were 46 fouls called in the game and Duke got its last 12 points on free throws.
Freshman Rasheed Sulaimon led Duke with 21 points, Seth Curry had 17 and Mason Plumlee, in foul trouble, scored 10 points.
Creighton (28-8) has never won back-to-back games in the NCAA Tournament and was thwarted this time because it could not find enough ways to score. Doug McDermott, Creighton’s star and the scourge of the Missouri Valley Conference, had a rough outing. He scored 21 points but shot a dismal 4 of 16, many of his shots around the basket rolling around the rim and out. He made all 12 of his free throws and had nine rebounds but he wasn’t nearly the factor Creighton needed him to be, as none of the other Bluejays managed to reach double figures.
“We thought we could put up a little bit better fight,’’ McDermott said. “They did a great job, they were real physical with me, they were switching everything, making it frustrating.’’
The 6-8 junior has not yet announced whether he will enter the NBA Draft and if this was his final college game he’ll look back on it with a good deal of frustration. He was able to connect on only one 3-pointer and fouled out with 37.3 seconds left. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski on Saturday called McDermott “a beautiful player’’ but this was not an attractive performance.
“It was, by far, Doug’s worst shooting performance of the year, not even close,’’ said his father and coach, Greg McDermott.
This was victory No. 2,000 in Duke’s proud history and the Blue Devils improved to 15-0 against non-ACC teams this season. They beat Albany 73-61 in their first tournament game and then disposed of Creighton in workmanlike fashion.
Tyler Thornton gave Duke a lift heading into the break, connecting on a deep pull-up trey that just beat the halftime buzzer for a 29-23 lead. The Blue Devils might have been in trouble when Plumlee picked up his fourth foul with 17:48 remaining and had to take a seat. He was on the bench for four minutes and during that span Duke extended its lead, as Seth Curry hit a 3-pointer and a reverse layup off an inbounds pass to make it 29-20.