Duke’s second-round upset of Ohio State had the makings of a fairy tale beginning, but a fourth-quarter surge from the Blue Devils wasn’t enough to beat Connecticut in the Sweet 16.
The Huskies, led once again by Player of the Year finalist Paige Bueckers, took down Duke for a 53-45 victory.
On the bright side, the Blue Devils held Connecticut to one of its worst offensive halves of the year to start the game. Duke’s defense harassed UConn, and the Huskies only had 23 points after two quarters.
The down side? Connecticut still led by 10.
The first 20 minutes featured some ugly basketball (unless you love defense, in which case, it was glorious). The two teams combined for 16 points in the opening quarter. The Huskies started to pull away late in the second, however, with an and-one from Bueckers with seven minutes left in the half helping to ignite a 13-4 run that broke the game open.
The Blue Devils spent much of the third quarter at arm’s length, trailing by 20 points in the final two minutes of the frame for the largest deficit of the game. After scoring 26.5 points per game in Duke’s first two victories, junior guard Reigan Richardson was held in check. She finished with just 10 points, shooting 5/15 from the floor and 0/5 from 3-point range. It was her first game without a triple since Georgia Tech on March 7.
Despite the off night from the team star, who dealt with the expected attention from the Connecticut defense, Duke found a way to fight back into the game. The Blue Devils scored the final five points of the third, emphasized by a 3-pointer from Taina Mair, to pull within 15.
With 6:22 to play, the Huskies’ Ice Brady made a jump shot to make it a 15-point game again. UConn didn’t score again for more than five minutes.
The Blue Devils defense did all it could, and the offense desperately fought back into the game. Ashlon Jackson made two free throws. Freshman Oluchi Okananwa, the ACC Sixth Person of the Year, converted an and-one and buried a 3-pointer as part of her team-leading 15 points.
Duke could only score 10 of the 15 points it needed, however, and when Connecticut star Aaliyah Edwards broke the scoring drought with 1:07 left to play, the game was all but over.
Bueckers finished with a game-high 24 points, although Duke became the first defense to stop her from putting up a double-double in the tournament. Edwards and KK Arnold each added 12 points to the victory effort.
The Blue Devils offense, without open looks for much of the afternoon, finished with a 32.7% conversion rate from the floor and shot 21.1% from 3-point range. Richardson and Okananwa were the only two to finish with more than five points.
Duke finishes the season with a 22-12 record.