Duke nips Florida to face Arkansas in final

Duke nips Florida to face Arkansas in final

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuter): Duke's senior leader Grant Hill led the Blue Devils out of a 13-point second-half deficit to nip the Florida Gators 70-65 on Saturday and earn a berth against Arkansas in the NCAA final.

Hill, who finished with 25 points to lead all scorers, scored 12 of them including two 3-pointers in a 29-15 comeback run after the Gators led 45-32.

In a game that saw the lead change three times inside the final three minutes, Duke showed the poise down the stretch that comes with six Final Fours in the past seven years and the second of back-to-back championships just two years ago.

Hill, appropriately, scored Duke's go-ahead basket to cap the comeback. Backing in purposefully in the lane, he turned and scored to make it 61-60 just inside the 5-minute mark.

From then on it was a war of nerves. Hill, the only All- American to reach the Final Four, made one of two foul shots but Florida guard Craig Brown, stifled much of the game by Hill's defense, made a 3-pointer that took back the lead at 63-62.

Duke's freshman guard Jeff Capel answered right back with a 3- pointer of his own to make it 65-63, and Florida never led again, although it came within one point on a tip-in by Andrew DeClercq with a minute and a half left.

Duke made two key defensive plays inside the last minute.

With about 40 seconds to go, Marty Clark stripped Florida guard Dan Cross, leading to a putback with 15 seconds remaining by Cherokee Parks that made it 68-65.

Then with 11 seconds left, Antonio Lang took a charge from Cross, bringing Clark over to dive onto him in celebration and the Duke bench onto the floor to surround him.

Lang's stuff with just over 10 seconds to go was the exclamation point on the final score.

Surprise

DaMetri Hill led Florida, a surprise just to reach the Final Four, with 16 points and DeClercq added 14.

"I think Grant was the difference," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. "I'm glad I've got Grant. I've been happy about that for four years."

Florida coach Lon Kruger said of Hill: "I think he did an excellent job on Craig (Brown). He is so quick to recover. He might find himself a step behind and just get right back in there.

"Offensively, he can shoot the ball so well. That's why they are Duke."

Brown concurred: "He did an exceptional job on both ends, and especially the defensive end in denying me the basketball on the perimeter. And his teammates did a good job when he wasn't guarding me."

Krzyzewski also praised the maturity of his other two seniors, Lang and Clark. "This was a seniors' game for us," he said.

Said Clark: "Down the stretch our will to win showed up. And we wound up winning the game."

Hill credited a timeout by Krzyzewski for keeping Florida from running away with the game. "Coach called a timeout and challenged us."