March Rewind: Mercer Loss Tops March 21 Duke History

What's March without Duke Tournament basketball? With this year's ACC and NCAA Tournaments cancelled, we'll go back in time to look at the top Blue Devils postseason games from each date in March and early April. Special thanks to SportsReference.com for boxscores and the Duke Library for the newspaper archive.

Duke took another step toward the Final Four with a win over DePaul, 74-67, in East Rutherford in the 1986 Sweet 16. Johnny Dawkins scored 25 with 10 rebounds, while Mark Alarie added 21 and eight. Duke saw its 14-point lead shrink to six before Jay Bilas hit a pair of free throws after fouling out Kevin Holmes.

The 1992 Blue Devils moved into the Sweet 16 with a 75-62 win over Iowa in Greensboro. Brian Davis scored 21 points with 10 rebounds. Christian Laettner added 19 and eight. Bobby Hurley had nine assists. Duke jumped out to a 21-7 lead before a 14-0 Iowa run in the second half tightened things up. Iowa coach Dr. Tom Davis wasn’t happy with the officiating. “It seemed like every call the first three or four minutes went their way,'' he said. ''It was not a good environment in which to be competitive, especially against the defending national champions. They didn't need any additional favors. Those things contributed to our demise in that early situation.”

Duke advanced to the 1999 Final Four with an 85-64 win over Temple in East Rutherford to wrap up the East Regional. Trajan Langdon hit 5-of-6 from three for 23 points. Elton Brand added 21.

There wouldn’t be a title defense as top-ranked defending champion Duke lost to Indiana, 74-73 in the 2002 Sweet 16 in Lexington. Jason Williams missed a potential game-tying free throw with four seconds left and Carlos Boozer missed the putback. Duke had led by 13 at the half and 14 with 12 minutes to play.

Duke advanced to the 2009 Sweet 16, scoring the final five points of the game to break a tie and beat Texas, 74-69 in Greensboro. Gerald Henderson scored 24 points. "Down the stretch, I just rode him -- we were going to sink or swim with him," Coach K said. "We're swimming."

The 2010 Blue Devils beat Cal in Jacksonville, 68-53 to move into the Sweet 16. Nolan Smith scored 20 and Kyle Singler 17. Brian Zoubek scored 14 points with 13 rebounds.

In 2014, Duke suffered a first-round upset for the second time in three years, as the 3-seeded Blue Devils were knocked off by Mercer, 78-71 in Raleigh. Quinn Cook scored 23 and Rasheed Sulaimon 20, while Amile Jefferson had 11 rebounds. Duke’s one-and-done stars struggled, however, with Jabari Parker hitting 4-of-14 from the field for 14 points and Rodney Hood 2-of-10 for six.