Duke relies on length, elite athleticism to beat Arizona and advance to Elite Eight

NEWARK, N.J. — Peeking out from beneath the back-to-back 3-pointers by Anthony Dell'Orso in the opening four minutes, sneaking a glance from behind the double-clutch floater by Jaden Bradley that extended Arizona's early lead shortly thereafter, were the intermittent glimpses of fragility and fool's gold that seemed destined — desperate, even — to undermine any bid for an upset at Prudential Center on Thursday night. To drain the life from three separate fan bases whose allegiances here at the Sweet 16 were temporarily aligned and fused by a shared disdain for Duke, the top seed in the East Regional and a perennial national championship contender. That the Blue Devils' boast three potential lottery picks, including presumptive No. 1 selection Cooper Flagg, the five-star freshman sensation and front-runner to be named Naismith College Player of the Year, has begun to bathe this season with an air of inevitability.

So it hardly mattered that Arizona, seeded fourth, made six of its first nine shots to cobble together a five-point lead by the 14:27 mark. It felt irrelevant that Duke, which utilized 10 players in the first half alone, was momentarily hamstrung by foul trouble to starting center Khaman Maluach — another one of those eventual lottery picks — and backup Patrick Ngongba, which forced head coach Jon Scheyer to insert half-healthy forward Maliq Brown, who hasn't played since suffering an injury in the ACC Tournament on March 13. Even when noted Duke killer Caleb Love, a transfer from North Carolina who had beaten the Blue Devils more times (five) than he'd lost to them (four), buried a gutsy 3-pointer from NBA range that knotted the game with 46 seconds remaining in the opening half, the split seconds of panic