Duke basketball coach Jon Scheyer left the season with a timeout in his pocket, and that might sting for a while.
After Silas Demary Jr. split his pair of free throws to pull UConn within two with 10 seconds to go, the Blue Devils had to either dribble the clock out or make two free throws to ice the game. Neither ended up happening, though, as Cayden Boozer, while trying to throw it ahead to a wide-open teammate in the frontcourt, had his pass tipped and stolen. A few moments later, Braylon Mullins rose and fired from 35 feet away, making the 3-pointer that would end Duke's season.
In his postgame press conference, Scheyer, whose 2024-25 team suffered a similarly astounding loss vs. Houston in the Final Four, was asked whether he considered using his final timeout when UConn's defense began swarming his players in the backcourt.
“We just have to secure it, right? We got it, they had to foul. I was ready for a timeout, and we just got to hold on,” Scheyer said. “It’s easy to look at that play. I look at every play that happened, especially in that second half. This is not about one play. It’s about every play that put us in that position. And that’s what you don’t want to do, where one play, something can happen. For me, this is going to be tough, but it’s not going to be on one play.”
With the loss, Duke, the first overall seed in the tournament, finished the season with a 35-3 record. Meanwhile, UConn will play Illinois on Saturday for a spot in next Monday's national championship game.
