Duke shuts down Mark Sears after historic Sweet 16 performance

On Thursday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, Mark Sears became the first player in NCAA Tournament history with eight threes and seven assists in a single game, knocking down 10 triples in a memorable 35-point performance. The entire Alabama team was red-hot in the win over BYU, but Sears and the rest of the Crimson Tide went ice cold against Duke’s stifling defense. 

The Blue Devils have plenty of offensive firepower with ACC and likely National Player of the Year Cooper Flagg, star freshman Kon Knueppel, and veteran guard Tyrese Proctor, but the top-seed in the NCAA Tournament’s East Region clinched its spot with dominance on the defensive end. Jon Scheyer’s team held Nate Oats’s group in check for 40 minutes en route to an 85-65 win over the highest-scoring team in the country this season averaging 91.4 points a game. 

Flagg is the presumptive No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft at just 18-year-old and that wouldn’t be the case without a polished offensive game, but the freshman phenom is likely most impactful defensively. On Saturday night Flagg finished with 16 points and nine rebounds with just one block and no steals, but was a key cog in Scheyer’s masterful defensive gameplan that shut down his opposing First-Team All-American. 

BYU began its matchup with Alabama going under every screen and allowing Sears space to pull up from three. A 43% three-point shooter a season ago, Sears dropped that average by 10% in the 2024-25 campaign, but proved that he was still just as lethal against the Cougars. After watching that dazzling display, Scheyer had a different plan.

Duke began the game in lock-and-trail on Sears, deliberately funneling him towards 7-foot freshman center Khaman Maluach. In the final game of his third season playing for Oats with his threes-and-layups philosophy, Sears was reluctant to pull up in the mid-range and was routinely enveloped by Duke’s overwhelming length. He finished 2-12 from the field for six points with five turnovers to his six assists, a disappointing end to a legendary career. 

There was a fitting moment in the second half that exemplified Duke's defensive prowess and its best player's commitment to that end of the floor. With 4:30 left and the Blue Devils ahead 72-58, Sears felt it was his moment to take over. Flagg got switched onto the All-American point guard and didn't just prevent him from scoring, he forced a travel and a turnover that ended any dreams of a miraculous comeback. Sears looked like the best player in the country just under 48 hours ago, and Duke had him flummoxed all night.

Oats made a clever counter early in the first half, inserting freshman 6-foot-10 freshman Aiden Sherrell in Clifford Omoruyi's place as Sears’ pick-and-roll partner. Sherrell, a much better outside shooter than Omoruyi, knocked down two threes, stretching out Maluach and creating offensive rebound opportunities with the big-man forced to vacate the paint, but it was unsustainable as Sherrell finished just 2-4 for six points. 

Maluach is one of the best rim protectors in the country and with Flagg’s proclivity for help defense, Duke has held opponents under 60% at the rim this season and to a staggeringly low 35.9% in the paint (according to CBBanalytics.com). Alabama managed 28 points in the paint but shot just 35.4% from the field just two days after going 49% from beyond the arc. It was a comprehensively dominant performance from the Blue Devils, who have lived up to expectations as the National Champion favorites. 

Auburn entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed, but with three 20+ point victories through its run to the Final Four, Duke has easily been the most impressive team in the field. Scheyer had big shoes to fill when he took over in Durham, maybe the biggest in the history of the sport, and while a Final Four appearance isn’t quite enough to satisfy Duke fans’ voracious appetite for success, Scheyer’s Blue Devils may not be done there.