Duke, a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, fell to Mercer, a No. 14 seed, as the Blue Devils once again wilted at the end of a game – except this time it proved to be the end of the season as the Blue Devils fell 78-71.
Mercer, an experienced team with seven seniors, outscored Duke, a talented but young team, 20-8 down the stretch. The Blue Devils, relying heavily on the three-point shot went cold in the second half.
Duke led by five points with four and a half minutes to go before Mercer went on an 11-0 run to go up 69-63 and never looked back.
The Blue Devils were playing what should have been a home-game atmosphere just a few miles from Durham but it was the Mercer Bears that most in the PNC Arena in Raleigh were supporting.
Duke led by as many as seven points in the first half but took only a 35-34 lead into the locker room. The lead went back and forth over the first 10 minutes of the second half.
With the score tied at 51, Duke went on a modest 12-7 run to go up 63-58 with just five minutes left. That’s when Mercer outscored Duke 11-0 over the next four minutes to go up 69-63. During the stretch, the Devils turned the ball over twice and missed three three-point shots.
For the game, Duke actually shot better from beyond the arc (15 threes, 40.5 percent) than it did from the floor (35.5 percent).
Five players scored in double figures for Mercer. Duke was led by Quinn Cook’s 23 points while Rasheed Sulaimon added 20. Freshman Jabari Parker scored 14 but he missed 10 of 14 shots from the field, including going 0 from 3 from the three-point line.