WASHINGTON, DC. — Everybody and their baby’s momma had Duke getting to the Final Four this year because of the Zion Williamson fascination. He balled out scoring 24 points but it wasn’t enough to get past a scrappy Michigan State squad led by Big Ten Player of the Year Cassius Winston as they knocked off the favorite 68-67.
The Spartans jumped out of the ride and quickly went up 10-4 as Duke seemed to be unsettled. Matt McQuad got the monster jam to put them up 12-5.
Duke finally settled down after a couple of timeouts with Coach K giving them the pep talk they needed. Zion Williamson got a rim rattling dunk to get the Blue Devils charged up. Before I could bite into my nachos it was all knotted up at 16 apiece but MSU’s McQuad unloaded another three to keep the distance. At the 7:43 mark of the 1st half it was 21-18 Spartans.
The Blue Devils took their first lead of the game as Cam Reddish knocked down two free throws to go up 22-21. Duke went on a 12-0 run and the next thing you know they were up 30-21 with 5:20 left in the half. They went on a 21-5 tear during this spurt.
The game of basketball is a game of runs so the Spartans continued to battle as they went on a 9-0 run to tie it up at 30 with less than two minutes left in the half. Cassius Winston played crazy defense down the stretch getting a couple of rips and getting down the floor in transition to put an additional 4 points (13-0 run) on the board to put the Spartans up 34-30 at the break.
Michigan State came out of the break with an alley-oop to Aaron Henry. However, Zion Williamson got going as he scored Duke’s first 10 points of the half outscoring Michigan State by a point.
Zion was doing it on both ends of the floor. He was shooting, rebounding and just outright did work. The Blue Devils were up 52-51 at the 10:46 mark. Both teams traded baskets like crazy with it all knotted up at 58 with 5:45 left.
With 2:26 left RJ Barrett knocked down the three to put the Blue Devils up 64-63. Then Zion got to the rack to make it 66-63 as Duke went on a 7-0 run with 1:44 left.
Cassius Winston ran the offense for the Spartans like a soldier as he got to the rack and dished it to Xavier Tillman for the bucket to make it 66-65. Kenny Goins came right back down the floor and hit the three to put them up 68-66 with 14 seconds left.
With 8.4 seconds left Duke called it’s last timeout. RJ Barrett is fouled going up and missed the first of two free throws with 5.2 seconds left to make it 68-67. With 4.7 seconds left Michigan State inbounds it to Cassius Winston who was wide open ran out the clock. Michigan State wins!!! Incredible game!!!