An incredible journey has reached the end of its’ road in San Francisco.
The No. 4 seed Arkansas Razorbacks had dreams of knocking off the No. 2 seed Duke Blue Devils and ending the illustrious career of head coach Mike Krzyzewski and more importantly, reaching the Final Four for the first time since 1995. That plan was not in the cards, as Duke wins the West region by defeating Arkansas, 78-69.
Destiny continued to be on the side of the Blue Devils, as they took their first lead of the game with 14:09 remaining in the first half on a layup by Mark Williams to give Duke the 10-9 lead.
The score by Williams erased the quick start that Arkansas established. The Razorbacks quickly got on the board with a layup by [autotag]JD Notae[/autotag] at the 19:25 mark in the first half to put Arkansas ahead, 2-0. The Razorbacks and Blue Devils would tie twice before Arkansas jumped out to their largest lead of three points with 16:05 remaining in the half.
The score would remain close throughout the remainder of the half, with Duke leading by no more than eight points. The turning point came at the end of the first half, as Duke went on an 8-0 run to close the first half. Head coach [autotag]Eric Musselman[/autotag] told CBS’ Tracy Wolfson during the postgame interview that he felt that the way the first half ended is what “killed” them.
Duke would come out of the locker room and would lead by as many as 12 points before the Razorbacks cut the lead to 51-43 on a jumper by [autotag]Stanley Umude [/autotag]at the 14:40 mark.
Arkansas stormed back to trim Duke’s lead to 53-48 with 13:19 remaining in the game, but a foul to Duke’s Paolo Banchero sent him to the free throw stripe, where he sank both free throws to push the Blue Devils to an 11-point lead. Those made baskets would begin a scoring surge that would not allow Duke’s lead to dip below ten points for the rest of the contest.
Four Blue Devils reached double figures in scoring in the Elite 8 contest, led by AJ Griffin’s 18 points. Mark Williams recorded a double-double by scoring 12 points while hauling in 12 rebounds. For Arkansas, the leading scorer was [autotag]Jaylin Williams[/autotag], who picked up his fourth double-double of the NCAA Tournament by scoring 19 and securing 10 rebounds. Stanley Umude and[autotag] JD Notae[/autotag] finished with 14 points each.
The Razorbacks’ incredible season ends with a 28-9 record, including a 17-1 record at Bud Walton Arena, and a 13-5 record against SEC foes.
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