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ESPN staff
The top-ranked Duke Blue Devils’ reign as college basketball’s undisputed team to beat was short-lived. Despite leading for much of the game, the Blue Devils faded late in a 71-66 loss to the unranked Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus, Ohio, resetting the national conversation yet again and opening the door for the Purdue Boilermakers or another team to ascend to the top of the rankings next Monday.
Duke took a 43-30 lead into halftime, expanded its advantage to as many as 15 In the second half, and still held a fairly comfortable 66-59 lead after a made Trevor Keels free throw with 4:29 to play. The Blue Devils would not score another point. Chris Holtmann’s OSU squad finished the game on a 12-0 run, including 6 points from Cedric Russell (12 points) and 4 from E.J. Liddell (14 points) in the closing moments to salt away the win. Zed Key also posted a career-high 20 points for the Buckeyes.
ESPN’s team of Myron Medcalf, Jeff Borzello, John Gasaway and Joe Lunardi weighed in on what they saw, the way forward for Duke and Ohio State, and the Bracketology and national rankings implications of the Buckeyes’ triumph.
What caused Duke to fall apart late in its loss to Ohio State?
Duke entered the second half with a double-digit lead, a lead that felt insurmountable. The Blue Devils were comfortable. But Ohio State put more pressure on the Blue Devils in the second half and forced some tough shots that didn’t fall, shots that had fallen in the first half. Duke led 51-39 on Jeremy Roach’s jumper with 17:07 to play in the game. Duke didn’t score another field goal again until the 11:06 mark. The Blue Devils went cold, missing eight consecutive field goal attempts during that stretch. While Duke still maintained a double-digit lead when Mark Williams scored with 11 minutes, 6 seconds to play, the vibe was changing. There were two Duke field goals the…
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Source : espn
