Arizona Wildcats end season with 100-93 Sweet 16 loss to Duke

NEWARK, N.J. — Getting a big night from Caleb Love was pretty much mandatory if the Arizona Wildcats were to knock off top-ranked Duke in the Sweet 16.

That wasn't a problem. In the Wildcats' 100-93 loss to the Blue Devils on Thursday at the Prudential Center, the UA and former North Carolina guard came through with a season-high 35 points against his longtime rival, leading the Wildcats during a spirited second-half surge that pulled them back into a game they trailed by 19.

But even though Love helped the Wildcats play much more competitively than they did during a 14-point loss to Duke at McKale Center on Nov. 22, the Wildcats ultimately didn’t have enough defense and rebounding, while coping with foul trouble to center Tobe Awaka, point guard Jaden Bradley and wing KJ Lewis.

Cooper Flagg led the Blue Devils with 30 points on 9-for-19 shooting, with seven assists and six rebounds, while Duke shot 60.0% from the field overall, hit 11 of 19 3-pointers and outrebounded Arizona 30-27.

Arizona couldn't keep up even with a 45.5 field-goal percentage that included 12 of 26 3-pointers.

The loss finished Arizona’s season at 24-13 while top-ranked and No. 1 seed Duke (34-3) moved into an Elite Eight game on Saturday against Alabama, which blew out BYU 113-88 in Thursday’s earlier Sweet 16 game.

Trailing 70-51 with 13:12 remaining, the Wildcats were staring at a blowout loss. But they cut it all the way down to five points, 91-86, when Carter Bryant hit a 3-pointer from the left corner with just under two minutes left, but the Blue Devils hung on by hitting 9 of 10 free throws the rest of the way.

Earlier, Love almost singlehandedly drove the Wildcats back into the game. He scored 15 points in less than five minutes during the middle of the second half, capped with a driving layup with 8:15 to go that trimmed Duke's lead to 78-68.

Then, UA center Henri Veesaar dunked and drew a foul, hitting the ensuing free throw to cut the Blue Devils’ lead to just 78-71 with 7:47 to go.

Love later threw down a dunk on the fast break to cut Duke’s lead to seven again, 86-79, with 4:45 left, tying his season high of 33 points on that play.

"I know he was tremendous today," UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. "He's going to wake up tomorrow and he's going to smile because he has a lot to look forward to. I'm really, really proud of him."

The Wildcats had to largely play without Awaka, who picked up his fourth foul with 13 minutes left, while Bradley had two fouls in each half, getting his fourth with 7:47 left. Lewis fouled out after committing three late fouls.

"I hated it, honestly," Awaka said about playing only 13 minutes because of fouls. "You see your teammates fighting, your brothers fighting, and you're just kind of on the side having to watch. You want to do everything in your power to be out there and fight with them."

In a tense first half that was played almost entirely within two possessions, much as the game was when Duke beat Arizona 69-55 on Nov. 22 at McKale Center, the teams were tied at 42 with 28 seconds left in the first half. But Duke’s Kon Knueppel and Flagg hit 3-pointers from there, with Flagg sinking his from 25 feet just before the first half buzzer hit. 

The Blue Devils carried that momentum into the second half, taking a 15-point lead after four minutes and nine seconds.

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Duke scored six straight eye-opening points when 7-footer Khaman Maluach dunked off an assist from Flagg, Knueppel drove in for a layup and Maluach dunked on an alley-oop feed from Flagg, who pushed the ball upward from near the floor.

"Definitely was hard with Cooper," Veesaar said. "He's a freak athlete so you definitely have to be a little bit higher up because otherwise he's going to get to the rim. You kind of have to play in between."

Maluach's alley oop dunk gave Duke a 62-47 lead and the Blue Devils soon afterward broke UA’s fullcourt press, with Patrick Ngongba scoring inside off a feed from Flagg. Duke then went ahead 70-51 with 13:12 still left before UA scored five straight, on a layup from Lewis and a 3-pointer from Love.

Duke's multiple scoring options meant that even though the Wildcats battled back from a 19-point deficit, they couldn't get it under five.

"I feel like we did a great job on the scout," said Bradley, specifically noting UA's defense of flare screens. "They didn't get any points off flares. But they killed us in other ways, driving lanes, lobs.

"You worry about something and then they hurt you with something else. They've got a lot of weapons for sure."

In the first half, Flagg scored 18 points overall, helping Duke take a 48-42 halftime lead. Flagg’s 7-for-12 shooting outweighed Love, even though he scored 14 points while hitting 3 of 5 3-pointers before halftime.

But other than Love, and two early 3s from Anthony Dell'Orso, the Wildcats didn't have enough offensively, and especially not defensively in the first half. UA's biggest advantage offensively in the first half came at the line, where the Wildcats scored eight more points than the Blue Devils, going 11 of 13 from the line while Duke hit three out of just five attempts.

Little used UA backup point guard Conrad Martinez came in with 6:07 left and the Wildcats trailing 28-27. Martinez threw a pass over the head of teammate Dell’Orso that went out of bounds, leading to a layup from Duke’s Flagg, but sank a 3-pointer from the right corner on UA’s next possession.

Early in the game, Arizona hit five of its first seven field goals to take a 13-10 lead, with Dell’Orso making two 3-pointers and Trey Townsend adding another. 

The Wildcats briefly went ahead 15-10 when Bradley threw in a 5-footer as he fell to the floor, but Duke's Tyrese Proctor hit a 3-pointer and two other baskets over a two-minute span to put the Blue Devils ahead 17-16 with 12:21 left.

The Blue Devils never trailed again but they could never take it easy, even after building that 19-point lead.

For that, Lloyd expressed gratitude.

"For us to hang in there and give ourselves a chance to make a run in the NCAA Tournament really says something about the character of these guys that we had in the locker room, and honestly the character of our coaching staff," Lloyd said. "When you're at a place like Arizona and you hit some rough waters, it can be tough. But we persevered, and we're better for it and our program is better for it."

Photos: Arizona can't run down Duke in a 100-93 loss in the Sweet 16