Duke beats Michigan State 81-61, advances to NCAA final
INDIANAPOLIS — Free throws and freshmen made for a winning combination as Duke breezed past Michigan State 81-61 on Saturday night to advance to the 2015 national championship game.
The Blue Devils (34-3) won for the 17th time in its past 18 games.
Duke’s four freshmen combined for 55 points, led by forward Justise Winslow’s 19 points and center Jahlil Okafor’s 18. Duke was 27 of 37 from the foul line as Duke dominated Michigan State for most of the final 35 minutes.
Junior guard Denzel Valentine, who led Michigan State with 22 points, caught fire late in the second half with two 3-pointers from the right wing after his layup on a personal 8-0 run, but the Spartans botched a three-on-one break that ended with Okafor dropping in an easy bucket from point-blank range to keep the Duke margin at 16 points with 5:20 left.
The Spartans were overwhelmed in man-to-man matchups across the board, which led to 28 Michigan State fouls in the game. That made life easy on Duke and prevented the Spartans (27-12) from whittling the Blue Devils’ lead below double digits for most of the second half.
Every Michigan State surge was easily answered.
The Spartans temporarily avoided the white towel to start the second half, stifling Duke on three consecutive possessions while guard Travis Trice put up five in a row and then found Valentine for a double-clutch right-handed layup to slice a 20-point deficit to a 54-41 margin with 11:30 to go.
Trice and Valentine finished with 38 of Michigan State’s 61 points.
Duke led 36-25 at halftime, making the most of it dominant paint presence at both ends of the court and 12 points from the foul line.
Duke fell behind 14-6 as the Spartans made four 3-point field goals in the opening 3:47, but Michigan State couldn’t get the ball inside and the Blue Devils’ freshmen settled down, isolating Okafor on the left block for much of a 30-11 run to end the half.
Okafor had 10 points in the first half. He didn’t touch the ball in the first four minutes but starred in the closing stretch, with an emphatic putback of Winslow’s missed layup with 9:49 on the clock, followed by points from seven different teammates.
Valentine scored nine of the first 14 points for Michigan State.
NOTES: Coaches Mike Krzyzewski and Tom Izzo met for the 10th time, with just one victory in the series for Izzo and the Spartans. Each coach won his first national championship in Indianapolis. Krzyzewski won his first of four in 1991 and also the 2010 championship at Lucas Oil Stadium. Izzo won his only title in 2000. … Only Krzyzewski has more Final Four appearances than Izzo (seven) among active coaches. Krzyzewski tied legendary UCLA coach John Wooden with his 12th appearance in the Final Four. … Michigan State ranked 330th of 345 Division I programs in free throw percentage (63.2 percent).
