Tatum leads Duke past Notre Dame for ACC title

Last year’s team lost more games than usual for a Duke squad- eight in ACC play alone, the most since the 1993-94 team that missed the tournament – and then lost players. No. 5 seed Duke erased an eight-point second-half deficit to defeat No. 3 seed Notre Dame 75-69 Saturday night at the Barclays Center. Duke is also playing in their fourth game in four days.

Notre Dame was a few minutes and a couple shots from winning its second Atlantic Coast Conference championship in three years.

After losing three of four in January, many thought Duke’s pieces did not fit, but Krzyzewski’s decision to start Frank Jackson ahead of Allen-even with the All-American healthy-and to keep Matt Jones and Amile Jefferson in prominent roles around potent scorers in Jayson Tatum and Kennard has now made those concerns look silly.

Notre Dame couldn’t recover from there, and when the Blue Devils’ Matt Jones, who’s been in an very bad shooting slump (he’d gone 132 game minutes without a field goal), drilled a 3-pointer from the right side with 48 seconds left to put Duke up 71-67, it was the exclamation point on the victory. Bonzie Colson is averaging 17 points and 10.4 rebounds while V.J. Beachem is averaging 15.4 points and 3.9 rebounds. Despite out-rebounding Notre Dame by a 19-12 margin, the Seminoles failed to convert from the field, shooting 11-for-27 (41%) against the stingy Irish defense.

This season, the NCAA introduced a change to the seeding process, allowing the top overall team to choose where it would like to play its tournament games.

Duke was picked as the preseason favorite to win the ACC title back in October.

Allen scored 18 points, his best outing in a month, and ACC leading scorer Luke Kennard had 24.

“I feel good about our team as we move towards the NCAA Tournament and we are going to be a tough out for anybody”, Hamilton said.

While the committee could always do something unexpected and there’s some drama in the South and West regions, these four teams will likely be on the one line after Selection Sunday 2017. Notre Dame opened with the first four points of the period to tie it at 38. The Blue Devils out-scored the Irish the rest of the way, 20-11, to prevent the Irish from claiming their second ACC championship in three years. Matt Jones also added a big 3 to put the Devils up four with 48 seconds remaining.

Said Brey: “It’s one of the great performances in championship game history”. First, they must overcome some tough matchups – the victor of the Providence-Southern Cal First Four matchup and then likely Baylor in the second round.

Florida State knew Notre Dame was on a roll when it wore gold so as the higher seed they came out in their own gold jerseys.

The East Region games in the tournament’s second weekend will be played at Madison Square Garden.

Northwestern is in the NCAA tournament for the first time in School History and they have a impressive Basketball team.

“I just let these guys do what we call as motion”, the Blue Devils coach said.

Wins on a neutral court against Duke and at Rupp Arena over Kentucky are looking stronger in recent weeks, as both teams should be a two or three seed.