{"id":569661,"date":"2026-03-28T09:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T09:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/569661\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T09:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T09:16:08","slug":"ashlon-jacksons-buzzer-3-powers-duke-to-sweet-16-win-over-lsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/569661\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashlon Jackson’s buzzer 3 powers Duke to Sweet 16 win over LSU"},"content":{"rendered":"

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Ashlon Jackson<\/a>‘s first game-winning shot came on the biggest stage and carried Duke<\/a> to the Elite Eight.<\/p>\n

Jackson hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer that lifted third-seeded Duke to an 87-85 win<\/a> over No. 2 seed LSU<\/a> in the Sweet 16 of the women’s NCAA tournament Friday night.<\/p>\n

“I feel like I’m on cloud nine right now,” Jackson said.<\/p>\n

Jackson’s shot from the wing right in front of Duke’s bench rolled around the rim before dropping in, setting off a wild celebration by the Blue Devils. She caught the ball on the wing and, after faking LSU defender Flau’jae Johnson<\/a>, put up the shot.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

“Never had a game-winner. Plenty of buzzer-beaters before,” Jackson said. “The way it went in, I felt like I was in a dream, and it was playing back over and over again before the ball went in.”<\/p>\n

Duke (27-8) will face top-seeded UCLA<\/a> in the Elite Eight of the Sacramento 2 Region on Sunday. The Bruins beat Minnesota<\/a> in the other regional semifinal.<\/p>\n

LSU (29-6) had rallied from an 11-point deficit to go ahead on two free throws by Mikaylah Williams<\/a> with 9.2 seconds left.<\/p>\n

Taina Mair<\/a> missed a 3-pointer from the corner with five seconds left. The ball went out of bounds off an LSU player with 2.6 seconds left, setting up the fantastic finish.<\/p>\n

Mair and Toby Fournier<\/a> each scored 22 points to lead Duke. Jackson finished with 19.<\/p>\n

Duke took an 11-point lead early in the fourth quarter before LSU cut it to 84-83 with 19 seconds left. Jackson was fouled, and she missed both free throws.<\/p>\n

“It’s basketball. I would have loved to make those free throws,” Jackson said. “Focus on the next play.”<\/p>\n

The ball went out of bounds, and a review gave it to LSU. Johnson drove the lane and missed a shot, but Williams got the rebound and was fouled. She made both free throws to give the Tigers the lead briefly before Jackson’s heroics.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been doing this a long time. Lost a national championship with seven-tenths to go. Been in those situations before,” LSU coach Kim Mulkey said. “Heartbreaking for your team and your players and fans. Been around a long time and seen endings like that. Been a part of those endings. Takes a while to get over it.”<\/p>\n

MiLaysia Fulwiley<\/a> scored 28 for LSU, and Williams added 22. Johnson finished with 13 to end her illustrious college career.<\/p>\n

Duke avenged an early-season loss to the Tigers in the ACC-SEC challenge. Since that loss, which dropped the Blue Devils to 3-6, they have won 24 of 26 games. That propelled them to both the ACC regular-season and tournament titles.<\/p>\n

LSU had been nearly unstoppable on offense, scoring more than 100 points in an NCAA-record 16 games this season. The Tigers’ offense was fine, but LSU couldn’t stop the Blue Devils.<\/p>\n

Duke got off to a fast start, hitting 55% of its shots in the first quarter to lead 24-19. The Blue Devils extended the advantage to 47-40 at the half. LSU struggled from the field except for Fulwiley, who had 18 points on 7-for-9 shooting.<\/p>\n

LSU rallied to tie the score early in the fourth before going cold from the field. Coach Kim Mulkey, wearing a purple sequined suit, tried to get her team going, but the Tigers couldn’t respond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Ashlon Jackson‘s first game-winning shot came on the biggest stage and carried Duke to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-569661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}