Duke Defeats Michigan State, Advances to Championship Game
While no. 7 seed Michigan State’s advancement to the Final Four proved to be yet another story of an underdog looking for their next upset, facing no. 1 seed Duke proved to be too much to handle for Sparty.
MSU took the court with a lot of confidence, scoring 14 points in the first 3:41 of the game on a hot 5 of 7 shooting from the field. Their overconfidence began to show as the Spartans began to slap the floor in Duke tradition early on. Duke’s defense began to tighten as they were able to slow Michigan State’s offense while their own offense started to heat up.
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After MSU’s hot start, the Spartans were only able to land three baskets over the remainder of the first half of play. Duke jumped out to a 36-25 half-time lead and never let the Spartans come close to climbing out of that hole.
Duke had spectacular play from a pair of freshman, guard Justise Winslow contributed 19 points and center Jahlil Okafor managed 18 points for the Blue Devils. Okafor’s dunk with just under 16 minutes remaining and putting the Blue Devil’s up 48-31 caused the entire Duke bench to slap the floor in rebuttal to MSU’s early game emotional display.
The Spartans would eventually fall 81-61 when the final horn sounded.
Undefeated Kentucky Upset by Wisconsin
Both the Kentucky Wildcats and the Wisconsin Badgers were no. 1 seeds heading into Saturday’s Final Four match up, but few gave the Badgers a fighting chance at sending the undefeated Wildcats home from the tournament early. They were anointed unbeatable too early as the Badgers avenged their heartbreaking loss just a year ago defeating the Wildcats 71-64.
It was a close game throughout the entire evening with neither team pulling very far of ahead of the other. Wisconsin managed to jump out to a 23-14 lead after a 12-3 run midway through the first half. Kentucky looked a little out of sync before twins Andrew and Aaron Harrison brought the Wildcats back to life, tying the score for the end of the first half.
Kentucky could feel the momentum swinging in their favor as the second half started, but Wisconsin would go on early second half 9-0 run to go up 52-44. With 10 minutes remaining in the game, the Wildcats got serious on defense not allowing the Badgers to score for more than five minutes. With just under seven minutes remaining, Kentucky was ahead 58-56.
Sam Dekker ended Wisconsin’s scoring drought with a layup then drew an offensive foul and was fouled on the ensuing offensive possession, putting the Badgers up for good on the his made free throws.
The Wisconsin Badgers will face the Duke Blue Devils in the NCAA men’s basketball championship tonight for a chance at the National Title.