NEWARK, N.J. — Kon Knueppel had a game-high 21 points with five assists, Cooper Flagg added 16 points and nine rebounds, and No. 1 seed Duke defeated No. 2 Alabama 85-65 to win the NCAA Tournament East Region final on Saturday night.
Duke (35-3) made its 18th Final Four in program history and its first since Jon Scheyer took over for the retired Mike Krzyzewski. The Blue Devils will face either Houston or Tennessee, who will square off in the Midwest Region final on Sunday.
Tyrese Proctor scored 17 points and Khaman Maluach had 14 points, nine rebounds and five dunks for the Blue Devils. They outshot the Crimson Tide 53.6 percent to 35.4 percent while bottling up an Alabama team that made an NCAA Tournament record 25 3-pointers in the Sweet 16.
Alabama (28-9) cut it to 65-58 with 8:03 to play before hitting a scoring drought lasting longer than five minutes. Duke, which never trailed Saturday, scored the next 13 points to put the game out of reach.
On consecutive possessions, Duke got Mark Sears to travel, then drew an offensive foul off Sears’ elbow. Sears, who knocked down 10 treys in a 34-point showing against BYU on Thursday, finished 2-for-12 from the field for six points with six assists and five turnovers.
Labaron Philon led the Crimson Tide with 16 points, and Grant Nelson and Chris Youngblood each had 10.
Flagg drained a 3-pointer on Duke’s opening possession, and the Blue Devils leapt out to a 15-5 lead.
Alabama freshman big man Aiden Sherrell knocked down consecutive triples. Soon the Tide drew within 21-17 before missing 11 of their next 12 shots.
Sears started 0-for-3, including an ill-advised layup that Maluach swatted out of play. Nelson tried to kickstart the Crimson Tide with a pair of high-flying dunks to trim it to six.
Flagg converted a three-point play with 16 seconds left, but Sears set up Nelson for a buzzer-beating layup to make it 46-37 Duke at the half.
Duke’s lead vacillated between seven and 11 points for much of the second half, and Proctor made consecutive layups for 63-50 lead with roughly 10 minutes to go. The Blue Devils shot at least 50 percent from the floor for the fourth straight tournament game.
