Duke's season ends with its latest painful collapse

DURHAM—For the second straight year, Duke’s March dreams dissolved in a haze of missed opportunities and final-second heartbreak. A 19-point lead late in the first half vanished Friday night, as top-seeded Duke fell 73-72 to UConn on a Braylon Mullins corner three-pointer that was set up by a Cayden Boozer turnover in the closing seconds.

The sequence replayed in stunned silence inside the arena: Boozer, trying to protect a one-point edge, lost possession near mid-court; the ball found Mullins, who rose, fired, and buried the shot as the horn sounded. The Blue Devils, once cruising at 40-21, could only watch the Huskies celebrate a stunning reversal that sends Duke home earlier than any preseason projection imagined.

The collapse is the program’s second straight season-ending nightmare. Last April, Duke led Houston by 14 in the second half and by six with 1:14 remaining in the Final Four, yet still found a way to lose. Twelve months later, the script feels cruelly familiar—an elite seed, a double-digit cushion, and a finish that will linger long into the offseason.