March Rewind: Sequel to Laettner Shot Not as Successful as Original

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 advanced to the 1990 East Regional Final with a 90-81 win over UCLA in East Rutherford. Phil Henderson exploded for 28 points, scoring 16 of Duke’s 18 points during one second half run. Henderson hit 6-of-11 from three. Christian Laettner had 24 points and 14 rebounds. Bobby Hurley had nine assists.

A year later, Duke again wrapped up a berth in a regional final, this time the Midwest in Pontiac, Michigan, with an 81-67 win over UConn. Duke led by 17 at the half, then rallied after UConn cut it to nine in the second half. Laettner had 19 points. Greg Koubek had 18, hitting 3-of-5 from three. Hurley had seven assists.

Duke lost in a regional final for the first time in 18 years and the third time in school history when Kentucky beat the Blue Devils, 86-84, to win the South in 1998. Duke led by 17 but saw Kentucky cut the lead to eight in a 1:17 span, hitting a pair of threes and adding a three-point play. Duke had a shot to win at the buzzer, with Shane Battier playing the role of Grant Hill six years earlier and inbounding the ball with seconds to play and the length of the court to go. William Avery missed a 30-footer at the buzzer, however.

The 2001 Blue Devils made it to the regional final with a 76-63 win over UCLA in Philadelphia. Duke led by seven at the half, but UCLA cut it to three. Jason Williams then scored 19 straight points for Duke on three threes, three driving layups, a layup off a lob and two free throws. Williams finished with 34 points and hit 6-of-13 on threes. Shane Battier added 24 with 11 rebounds and four steals.

Three-seed Duke advanced to the Sweet 16 with an 86-60 win over Eastern Michigan in Salt Lake City in 2003. Dahntay Jones scored 28 points and freshman JJ Redick added 26 on 5-of-7 three-point shooting. Chris Duhon had 16 points, eight assists and six steals.

Duke’s 2008 tournament came to an early end when the 2-seed Blue Devils lost to West Virginia in D.C., 73-67. The Blue Devils scored 14 straight in the first half and led 18-8. Duke led by five at a half but went six and a half minutes without a field goal, while West Virginia rallied.

Duke opened the 2013 tournament with a 73-61 win over Albany in Philadelphia. Seth Curry scored 26 points on 10-of-14 shooting. Quinn Cook dished out 11 assists, and Mason Plumlee scored 23 on 9-of-11 shooting with eight rebounds.

Duke advanced to the 2015 Sweet 16 with a 68-49 win over San Diego State in Charlotte. The Aztecs had no answer for Jahlil Okafor, who hit 12-of-16 shots for 26 points. Justise Winslow had 13 points and 12 rebounds. Quinn Cook added 15 points.

Add us as a preferred source on Google