Jon Scheyer had a painstakingly long offseason to think about just how slim the margins are between victory and defeat. The nightmares of blowing a 14-point lead in the Final Four to Houston, including a last minute from the depths of hell, will never fully go away.
One has to wonder if those all-too-familiar thoughts started to reverberate on Tuesday when No. 15 Florida erased a 15-point deficit to take a 66-64 lead with 35 ticks remaining on a Boogie Fland pull-up trey. Ten seconds prior, Pat Ngongba had taken one of the most ill-advised shots a Duke player had taken all season to crack open the window for a gutsy Florida comeback.
This time, Duke made those three big plays in winning time that befell it last April in the Alamodome. Jon Scheyer dialed up a ghost screen for Cameron Boozer to find Isaiah Evans for the go-ahead triple. Caleb Foster, like the veteran warrior he’s becoming, turned it up to force a Boogie Fland turnover, and Maliq Brown deflected a Duke inbound pass to seal a victory at the buzzer.
No. 4 Duke 67, No. 15 Florida 66.
Stacking winning plays. Games like Tuesday can prove to operate as daily deposits for a young team like these Blue Devils to learn what it takes (and what to avoid) to beat desperate outfits like Florida.
Not only did Duke improve to 9-0, but it found a closer. Duke’s late-game offense was a source of frustration multiple times a year ago, but Boozer showed the toughness and smarts to be an ultra-valuable fulcrum in crunch time. His nothing-but-net trey with 2:10 remaining was enormous. So was his strong left-hand drive and finish over Florida’s Rueben Chinyelu, who is aptly described as a mountain of a man.
Boozer poured in 29 points to go along with six rebounds and two more dimes. He entered the night averaging over 33 points created a night. He scored 29 and assisted on six more points to finish with a mind-blowing 35 points created. It’s one of the top marks in all of the sport.
Scheyer also showed just how far he’s come. Duke scored 18 monster points after timeouts in this one. That’s tied for the most of any game of the Scheyer era. Duke not only has one of the most talented rosters in the sport, but it also has one sharp offensive coordinator in Scheyer.
Hopefully, the ice packs and ice baths in Durham are up to par because the Blue Devils will need ’em to heal up from Tuesday’s brawl ahead of Saturday’s showdown with ultra-physical No. 8 Michigan State.
They’ll head to East Lansing with an unblemished record and a defined closer in its bullpen. Oh, what a glorious feeling that must be.
