Love It! Duke Takes Out Arizona In The 2025 Sweet 16 Behind A Brilliant Game From Cooper Flagg

A dramatic and passionate game by both teams that should help Duke a lot.

You know how people - including GOAT Mike Krzyzewski - were saying that not having a close game could be a problem for Duke? Well, you can’t say that anymore.

Duke and Arizona put on one of the better games in the tournament before Duke won 100-93 behind a brilliant game from Cooper Flagg.

Not that it was easy.

Duke and Arizona battled to a first-half draw until the Blue Devils hit 10 points in the last 1:35 including a very deep three by Flagg at the buzzer.

Duke built a bit of foul trouble in the first half with Khaman Maluach having two fouls and Patrick Ngongba three but in a nice bit of good news, Maliq Brown returned after his second shoulder injury and provided some key minutes before halftime.

Despite being considerably smaller, Arizona competed on the boards, getting seven offensive and five defensive to 11 and four for Duke. The Blue Devils shot better with 53.8 percent from threes and 61.3 overall in the first stanza to 50 percent and 42.9 percent overall for the Wildcats. However, Arizona got to the line 13 times, hitting 11, to Duke’s more modest 3-5.

Still, Duke took a 48-42 lead to the locker room and built on that when the second half began.

Duke didn’t miss a shot until Kon Knueppel came up short on a jumper 12:34 in, by which time the Devils had a 70-53 lead. A 17 point lead has been pretty solid, almost routine for this team, but not against Arizona.

Led by long-time Duke nemesis Caleb Love, Arizona chipped away as it went from what looked like an easy win to a real grinder.

Love cut the lead to 12 at 10:23 with a layup before Duke pushed the lead back up. Still, the Wildcats kept coming.

Love cut it to 10 with 8:15 to play, and big man Henri Veesaar cut it down to 78-70 on a tip-in.

Arizona kept cutting into the lead and for the first time in a while, Duke faced real adversity: Maluach and Ngongba were both in deep foul trouble as were Knueppel and Sion James.

Duke had answers for everything though and a lot of it came down to Flagg. He had 30 points, seven assists, three blocks and a steal.

Maluach played through his foul trouble and had some key plays down the stretch: he blocked a shot when Arizona was down 89-83 with 2:42 to go and when Veesar missed a chippy with 1:13 to play, Maluach got the board.

In the last :18, Arizona was forced to foul Knueppel, a 90.3 percent foul shooter. Not surprisingly, he hit all four and in the end, Duke won one of the best games of the 2025 tournament.

Ironically enough, for all the talk of Love ending Coach K’s career and Paolo Banchero’s collegiate career, and potentially ending Cooper Flagg’s as well, in the end Duke ended his.

He went out with a bang though, finishing with a game-high 35. And we think you’d agree that the Love we saw here was not the Love we saw in Chapel Hill. The Arizona Love was disciplined and smart, unlike the Chapel Hill Love. Good coaching has done miracles for him and while he is still inconsistent, this game should help his draft stock. He’s really improved tremendously and clearly, he was the beating heart of this team. Most Duke fans probably didn't realize it but he played all 40 minutes.

Duke now moves on to play Alabama in the Elite Eight after ‘Bama racked up 113 points on BYU, including 34 by Mark Sears. All but four points came on threes and two came at the line. Should be interesting.

Notes - Brown only played four minutes in the first half, but he immediately reminded fans of how unique a defender he is...Proctor, who was so hot last weekend, shot 3-8 and 1-4 from behind the line...however, James shot 5-6, Knueppel 5-7 and Maluach 6-8...Duke finished 11-19 on threes too...there were a total of 46 fouls in this one...by the end, Duke got 27 attempts, hitting 23 to Arizona’s highly impressive 21-23...during one stretch in the second half we saw Flagg approach a level that we rarely see, first hitting James for a three, then two dunks by Maluach and then another dunk by Ngongba...that was gorgeous basketball...

AZ limited early then hot...8-0 run.

Duke comes back as Proctor scores seven straight...

Also pretty physical so far which works against Maluach...

Evans hits a three to put Duke up 20-16.

11-0 run Love hits a three 23-19

Flagg’s crazy shot to end the half...finished with 18...

Foul line kept Az in it...11-3..

Flagg to James then 2 alley oops 62-47

20-23 of last FG attempts 68-51

first missed shot of 2nd half 12:32
20-8 run for AZ 78-71