The Duke Blue Devils are headed back to the national championship game after beating the Michigan State Spartans in the Final Four.
Michigan State was raining three’s to begin their Final Four game against Duke and built an early lead, but after the media timeout a few minutes into the game, the Blue Devils took control and never gave it back.
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It didn’t look like it would be this easy for Duke who trailed Michigan State by the score of 14-6 after Denzel Valentine hit his first three-point attempts and the bounces were working in favor of the Spartans. In fact, Valentine had nine points in the game’s first five minutes.
But that was the last fleeting run by the Cinderella team in this year’s NCAA Tournament as the Blue Devils imposed their will on the No. 7 Spartans the rest of the way and the score was never closer than 13 points in the second half.
Potential No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, Jahlil Okafor was an integral part in the “imposing their will” as the big man from Whitney Young high school in Chicago dominated in the paint and Michigan State had trouble slowing him down on the offensive end. In the video below, you can see Okafor corralling the ball off the glass and throwing it down for an easy two points.
Those easy buckets were there all night for Okafor who was 7-11 from the field for a 18 points and six rebounds. Justise Winslow led the Blue Devils with 19 points and nine rebounds and Quinn Cook added 17 points.
Even the players you don’t expect to play above the rim and deliver a highlight reel dunk did so tonight as Grayson Allen threw one down after he rebounded his own miss from three-point range which served as the unofficial dagger for Tom Izzo’s team tonight.
Michigan State was led by Valentine who had a game-high 22 points and 11 rebounds but with the Spartans committing 14 turnovers, shooting 40.7 percent from the field as a team and unable to slow down Okafor and Winslow resulted in their remarkable run ending in Indianapolis.
Duke sets up one half of the national championship game that is the most popular in brackets this year with a potential matchup looming large with the undefeated Kentucky Wildcats if they can get past the Wisconsin Badgers in the night game.
Mike Krzyzewski is one win shy of his fifth NCAA championship as he cements his legacy as the modern-day John Wooden.
You can watch the national championship game Monday night on CBS.
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