Less than 48 hours after recording the program’s first ever victory in the NCAA Tournament, the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ men’s basketball team ended their historic season after an unforgettable battle against the No. 1 team in the nation and perennial powerhouse Duke.<\/p>\n
Trailing 77-76, the Knights had two good looks at the hoop in the final seconds when senior guard BJ Taylor ’18<\/strong> drove toward the basket and tried to bank his attempt. Redshirt junior forward Aubrey Dawkins ’18<\/strong> tipped Taylor’s miss, but both shots rimmed out, allowing the Blue Devils to escape to the next round.<\/p>\n “We left it all out there. We played as hard as we could. I think we showed a lot of people across the country that we were a serious basketball team and that we really could play with anybody,” Taylor said in the postgame press conference. “I know coming into this game a lot of people had us losing by 15-plus to these guys, and they’re a great team. Like coach said, they fought and played extremely hard, but I think we represented Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ as best we could. I think we did everything we could to win that game. It just came down to a couple plays.”<\/p>\n Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ head coach Johnny Dawkins gave an emotional speech in the locker room to the Knights, who finished the year with 24 victories, just one victory shy of the program\u2019s Division I record for victories in a season, set in 2003-04.<\/p>\n