Fearsome Foursome : Michigan State and Duke Make It 3 No. 1-Seeded Teams and a No. 4 (Ohio State) Heading to Final Four

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. —  Temple was in a zone.

So was Trajan Langdon.

Cross off one more strategy in the How-to-Beat-Duke sweepstakes: Duke is in the Final Four after Langdon’s spree of threes destroyed Temple’s famously physical zone defense in an 85-64 victory in the NCAA East Regional final Sunday at Continental Airlines Arena.

Five minutes into the game, Duke trailed for the first time in the tournament, down by four.

Then Langdon made a little running jump shot.

Then a three-point basket from the right wing.

Then, after Temple scored, Langdon made another three-point shot, same spot.

And then, incredibly, a third three-point basket--this time from the left wing, with Temple’s Quincy Wadley flailing out to try to stop him but far too late.

Langdon’s triplicate of threes took only one minute 20 seconds.

The Owls might not have known it yet, but while only down by five at 16-11, they were dead.

“The kid’s just that good,” Temple Coach John Chaney said. “As pure a shooter as I have seen in the game of basketball.”

Langdon didn’t miss a three-point shot until less than 11 minutes remained in the game, making five of six and finishing with 23 points.

Temple packed its bruisers down on Elton Brand, Duke’s bull of a center.

But Blue Devil forward Chris Carrawell drove and passed and finished with seven assists and no turnovers as he helped create space for Langdon, and point guard William Avery, who made three long three-point shots himself.

The Blue Devils made 60% of their shots and 10 of 17 three-point attempts. Temple not only didn’t get out on the Duke three-point shooters--it couldn’t shoot straight either, finishing at 37% from the field.

It was Langdon, the only senior starter on a team dominated by sophomores, who made sure Duke is on its way to its 12th Final Four. It is Duke’s eighth under Coach Mike Krzyzewski, but first since 1994--and its first since the program nose-dived to 13-18 during Langdon’s freshman season in 1995 when Krzyzewski was out because of stress and back surgery.

“It’s been a long time coming, but it’s a great feeling,” said Langdon, a fifth-year senior who sat out a year because of a knee injury. “It was something I had not experienced, and coming into the game, I knew it was my last chance to go to the Final Four. I’m just so proud of our team and the way we performed today.”

Yes, the “D” in Duke is for Dominant. The top-seeded and No. 1-ranked Blue Devils have swept to the Final Four by winning their first four NCAA tournament games by 41, 41, 17 and 21 points.

They have won 31 games in a row as they fashioned a 36-1 record, with the only loss to Cincinnati by two points Nov. 28.

So what if there was not a wild celebration at the end. There was clear joy.

And yes, they relished cutting down the nets a year after Kentucky stormed from 17 points behind to beat them in the regional finals.

This time, Temple (24-11) cut the lead from 20 to only 10 with a little over 10 minutes left, but there was nothing doing.

“Oh my God, the clock goes in slow motion,” Carrawell said. “You kind of think about last year and say, hey, it’s not over.”

Duke scored 11 of the next 13 points, and it was.

It wasn’t until a little more than a minute remained, though, that Carrawell raised his arms, and Langdon started clapping and caught Avery in a hug.

“My freshman year, we were 13-18,” Langdon said. “People talk about us being invincible, that we can’t be beat, but I remember what it was like to be almost unable to win a game.”

When it came time to win the one to get them to St. Petersburg, Fla., for a national semifinal against Michigan State on Saturday, Langdon--who missed three games recently because of a foot strain and had to endure questions about whether Duke even needed him--was the man.

But not the only man.

Corey Maggette, a talented freshman reserve, made the single most astounding play of the game when he soared stunningly high above the rim to slam home a miss by Avery just before the buzzer at the half.

“So high,” Carrawell said. “That’s one of those plays going into the locker room that can take a little bit out of the other team.”

Brand, the probable national player of the year, had to contend with Temple wide-bodies Kevin Lyde and Mark Karcher inside, and started the game with a rash of turnovers, and only six points in the first half.

But by the time Langdon had bashed the Temple zone from outside and Carrawell had slashed it with his penetrating drives, Brand found some room in the second half and finished with 21 points and eight rebounds.

“In this bracket, I thought we were the only team that had a chance of beating Duke,” Chaney said. “We held down their inside play pretty well early. But you know somebody is going to start hitting outside. You just don’t know who or how well.

“That kid, there’s no way I can describe it. For Lamont [Barnes] at 6-10 to come out at him, and he still gets the shot up.

“We told them he only needed to look through the hole of a needle to see the basket.”

And from here, he can see St. Pete.