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Tuesday, April 3
Triple plays send Duke on its way
MINNEAPOLIS -- Arizona had to gamble and collapse in on any Jason Williams penetration. By doing that, someone was going to be open.
That somebody was Mike Dunleavy -- three times in 45 seconds on three straight second-half Duke possessions. And, each time, the sophomore hit a 3-pointer to turn a tight game into a comfortable cushion and eventual 82-72 victory in the NCAA Tournament national championship game. Dunleavy's treys took the Blue Devils' lead from 40-37 to 49-39 three minutes into the second half.
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Not Really Like Mike
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Micheal Dunleavy's 21-point performance was unexpected based on his first five tournament games:
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Opponent
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FGs/Att.
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3pts/Att.
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Pts.
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Arizona
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8-17
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5-9
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21
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Maryland
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2-8
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0-2
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4
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USC
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4-6
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1-2
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11
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UCLA
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3-11
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0-6
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7
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Missouri
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5-9
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3-4
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15
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Monmouth
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6-9
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2-4
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14
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Arizona would eventually cut the Duke lead to three before it would shoot back up to 12. The Wildcats would get to within three twice within the last five minutes, but couldn't get any closer.
Dunleavy's 3s kept haunting them. His solo 9-2 run didn't demoralize Arizona, but it certainly was one of the clinching runs for the Blue Devils on Monday night in the Metrodome.
"With Jason and Shane (Battier) teams are always sagging off so you always have a pretty good look," Dunleavy said. "By the time I got the second and third ones I was in a pretty good rhythm. Something you've got to do because those guys are major threats. But time after time we've proven on this team that other guys on this team can hurt you."
Arizona did a decent job defending the two big guns for Duke. Battier and Williams were a combined 3 of 16 on 3-pointers. But Dunleavy was no fluke. He was averaging 12.4 points a game in the five tournament games heading into the final. He was shooting 36 percent on 3s and was third on a team that shot over 1,000 3-pointers in made 3s.
"We knew, the way we played, the thing we needed to do better was not let them penetrate the lane," Arizona forward Luke Walton said. "We weren't going to come off the shooters, but if someone penetrates the lane, you've got to collapse on them. And Dunleavy was just hitting huge shots. What we had to do better was to contain the driver."
Dunleavy finished with 21 points, 18 in the second half, making 5 of 9 from behind the arc. His performance was surprising only due to his four-point performance against Maryland when he missed both 3s he attempted and made only 2 of 8 shots overall.
|  | | Michael Dunleavy scored 18 of his 21 points in the second half. |
"So many times people are always saying you stop Shane and I and you can beat Duke," Williams said. "We're so much bigger than that. Mike has played and given us great games. Like Mike said, he was due. For the past few games, our shots haven't been falling. I could tell by the way Mike was shooting in the couple practices before that he was going to have a great game and he did."
Battier added that Dunleavy isn't a great basketball player, but a phenomenal basketball player. Roommate Casey Sanders even went as far as to say he told Dunleavy after leaving the hotel room Monday that he would have a great game.
But instead of some great karma around Dunleavy, it was simply the Blue Devils taking advantage of what they do best: being opportunistic. A long rebound miss off a Gilbert Arenas shot led to the first Dunleavy 3-pointer. The second one followed a Jason Gardner driving jumper at the other end. Battier's mauling, or rather two-handed block of a Gardner layup, set up the third 3-pointer.
"Duke is a very talented team just like we are and it's hard to just focus on two guys," Arizona's Richard Jefferson said. "It was only a matter of time before Dunleavy had two or three 3-pointers. That just broke the game wide open."
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
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ESPN's Jay Bilas examines the turning point of the championship game.
Mike Dunleavy says he did not lose confidence, and found his shooting touch in the second half (Courtesy: NCAA Production).