Duke has advanced to the Elite Eight after another opponent missed a point-blank shot at the rim in the closing seconds to give the Blue Devils the win.
Duke is the luckiest team in March Madness
The Blue Devils beat Virginia Tech in the Sweet 16 on another missed shot at the buzzer.
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Virginia Tech was inbounding the ball under Duke’s basket with 1.1 seconds left and trailing by two. The Hokies ran an alley-oop play for Ahmed Hill, whose shot bounced off the rim to give Duke the victory.
Here’s another look at the play. Hill was so close to forcing overtime:
Duke wins 75-73 and advances to face Michigan State with a shot at the Final Four on the line.
Virginia Tech had the No. 1 overall seed on the ropes all night. The Hokies hit 9-of-26 three-pointers (34.6 percent). Kerry Blackshear (18 points, 16 rebounds, five assists) gave Buzz Williams’ team an impressive inside presence, while senior point guard Justin Robinson added 14 points and five assists off the bench.
In the end, Zion Williamson (23 points) and Duke survived at the buzzer for the second straight week.
Duke beat UCF on a similar play in its last NCAA tournament game
Duke was lucky just to be in the Sweet 16. After a frantic final possession put the Blue Devils up one in the closing seconds against UCF, Knights star Aubrey Dawkins had a point-blank look to win the game. It rimmed out.
UCF really should have beat Duke. The Knights were in control of that game for the last few minutes before Williamson’s and-one and R.J. Barrett’s putback gave the Blue Devils an unlikely four-point possession in crunch-time.
Virginia Tech wasn’t as close, but it still could have forced overtime on the last shot of the game. Hill just missed.
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