WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Caleb Foster returned to the lineup and may have saved Duke’s season.<\/p>\n
Less than three weeks after suffering a fracture in his right foot, Foster scored 11 second-half points and helped the top-seeded Blue Devils to an 80-75 comeback victory over fifth-seeded St. John\u2019s in the East Regional semifinals on Friday night. Duke (35-2) will play second-seeded UConn (32-5) on Sunday for a spot in the Final Four. Tip-off is set for 5:05 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had no business playing [Friday],\u201d Duke coach Jon Scheyer said after the game, seated next to Foster. \u201cNinety-nine percent of guys do not come back to play under the circumstances of what happened to him. It was incredible the way he willed us. There\u2019s no analytics. There are not stats that can measure how big this dude\u2019s heart is for what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foster injured the foot in the first half of Duke\u2019s March 7 game against North Carolina. He underwent surgery on March 8. Scheyer said at the time that Foster might be able to return by the Final Four, but even that sounded like a longshot.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said two weeks and that\u2019s where my mind has been ever since,\u201d said Foster, a junior guard.<\/p>\n
Scheyer interjected: \u201cNobody said two weeks. You heard two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blue Devils desperately needed Foster against an aggressive, pressing St. John\u2019s team that led at halftime and extended its edge to 55-45 early in the second half.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when Foster scored on four consecutive possessions \u2014 a rebound putback, a driving layup, a jumper and a free throw \u2014 as Duke began its comeback.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he scored four times in a row, I was like, \u2018Oh yeah. Yes, sir.\u2019 That was definitely the moment,\u201d said Duke star Cameron Boozer, who had 22 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n
Scheyer said he thought Foster could give the Blue Devils eight to 10 minutes Friday night. He hasn’t participated in any 5-on-5 drills or practices since the injury, Scheyer said. Instead, Foster played 18 minutes and made 5-of-8 field goal attempts with three rebounds and two assists.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe completely surpassed my expectations of what I expected, what I was hoping for,\u201d Scheyer said. \u201cAnd obviously, you guys saw it, we needed every last shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foster might not have been in position to help if not for the shot-making of Isaiah Evans, who had a game-high 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting, including 4-of-8 on 3-point attempts. Evans, Boozer and Foster combined for 38 points in the second half. The rest of the Blue Devils had just three.<\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s coach Rick Pitino lamented his team\u2019s inability to stop Boozer\u2019s drives to the basket.<\/p>\n
\u201cBully drives, bully drives, bully drives,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was our defense that broke down. It wasn\u2019t so much not being in the right place. We just got bullied to the basket. They do that to a lot of teams. That\u2019s why they\u2019re the No. 1 ranked team in the country. We could defend the bully drives.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s (30-7), the champions of the Big East, played with fierce aggression throughout the game. Boozer\u2019s jersey was torn at the \u201cK\u201d in Duke, and the Red Storm forced nine turnovers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s made 9-of-18 first-half attempts from 3-point range. But were just 4-of-14 in the second half. Reserve forward Ruben Prey, who had just 20 3-point attempts all season, made all four of his 3-pointers. Dillon Mitchell made his lone attempt, his first make of the season. Duke went to a matchup zone for parts of the second half.<\/p>\n
Nothing was as big as getting Foster back. Foster made two baskets in the final 2:14 as Duke worked to hold off the Red Storm.<\/p>\n
\u201cHim coming back just gave us a tremendous boost, insurmountable confidence,\u201d Evans said.<\/p>\n
Foster missed the NCAA Tournament during his freshman season after a late-season injury. He wasn\u2019t about to let that happen again, especially with Duke favored to win the event and coming off last year\u2019s Final Four heartbreak.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I was a kid, I watched Duke winning national championships and I always dreamed of being a part of it,\u201d Foster said. \u201cWhatever I could do to provide a boost to these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foster could have transferred after his first season, or, especially, after his second, when his stats, minutes and points all dropped on a loaded Duke team. He didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis commitment to Duke, his commitment to me and this program has been unmatched,\u201d Scheyer said. \u201cAnd then for [Friday], most guys wouldn\u2019t come back, just that\u2019s the reality. There\u2019s no blame. This decision had to come from him, and I just want to support him in that decision. And when he did, it was a surreal thing to coach. I really felt like he was going to will us to victory, and that\u2019s what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Caleb Foster returned to the lineup and may have saved Duke’s season. Less than three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[72010,68674,72011,63552,9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-178035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-caleb-foster","tag-duke-basketball","tag-duke-sports","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}