GREENSBORO - Although the possibility of Binghamton pulling off a nearly-unthinkable upset was, at times, present, it never became a realistic probability.
The Bearcats would have had to continue their hot shooting from the opening period for a full 40 minutes, something no team-not even North Carolina-has accomplished against Duke for an entire game.
That goal of pulling the fifth upset of a No. 15 over a No. 2 seed became virtually impossible once severe foul trouble plagued Binghamton within minutes, reducing it to a 3-point-shooting show that ran out of hot shooting by the second half.
In fact, a little more than 10 minutes into the game, the Bearcats' three best players-D.J. Rivera, Malik Alvin and Reggie Fuller-had all accumulated two fouls, removing their aggressiveness and thus reducing their ability to utilize their overwhelming agility.
"We just wanted to drive the ball and get to the free-throw line, obviously, because then a team gets in foul trouble like that," junior Jon Scheyer said. "It was good to get a good start in the game. And I think Fuller had two fouls early, and he's a really good player for them, and that's big for us."
The opening four minutes saw Binghamton accrue six team fouls and just four points, a fact not ignored by the small Duke cheering section, which serenaded the court with chants of "six fouls, four points!" repeatedly.
"That's something we can't control," Rivera said. "We couldn't really worry about that that much."
"We're going to get fouls," Binghamton head coach Kevin Broadus. "We've been used to it. We have just got to suck it up and just play hard and just play smarter."
The Bearcats had started by going inside on four of their first five possessions, and with a team quickness that head coach Mike Krzyzewski and guard Nolan Smith lauded as among the best they have seen all year, such a strategy would have kept the slim hopes for an upset not out of the question.
But they also started by reaching the penalty in less than eight minutes, giving Duke free throws after every foul from then on. And with the Blue Devils' reputation as a team that draws a large amount of charges, it forced Binghamton to jack up threes, often in the face of heavy defensive pressure.
After the first four 2-pointers, just under half of the Bearcats' shots came from beyond the arc. For comparison's sake, Duke, which has lived and died by the three this year, had just more than a quarter of its shots come from long-range in the opening period.
For that first 20 minutes, the strategy worked. The Bearcats converted 6-of-11 3-pointers and managed to keep the game within striking distance.
Once the second half rolled around, however, the shots that had bounced in instead rimmed out. The shots that had swished suddenly turned into tired-legged bricks. And when it was all said and done, they had made just one 3-pointer in the entire second half, and a 11-point deficit ended up a 24-point loss.
"We just didn't make shots that we normally make," Rivera said. "They take you off your sets and things like that.. They got off to a good start and we didn't."
It's fairly difficult to do so when nearly every star player is saddled with foul trouble, a fact definitely not lost on the Bearcats, especially when the alternate strategy finally crumbles in the face of a stingy defense and tired legs.
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