After 20 minutes, it’s looking a lot like Duke and Butler (who is a mid-major Duke, in that they’re just bursting at the seams with white people) will be in Monday’s championship game. Duke holds a 39-31 advantage, and it actually seems like it could have been worse.
Halftime Break: It’s Duke’s Game To Lose
Duke broke the game wide open with a 15-4 run late in the first half, raining threes on a powerless West Virginia defense. To the Mountaineers’ credit, they hung in after the spree, scoring seven of the half’s last nine points to keep things respectable going into the locker room.
For West Virginia, their task is simple yet daunting: keep Duke off the offensive glass. Both teams are shooting the ball well, around .500 in each case, and the fouls and turnovers are evenly and acceptably low on both sides of the court. It’s just that Duke has four more attempts and three more makes, and that’s why they’re up at the half.
Also, West Virginia should probably try to get more than two points out of Da’Sean Butler in the second half, because if he can’t get going, the rest of the team probably won’t be able to bring the ’Eers back without downright magical improvement on defense and on the glass.
See More:
