Zion Williamson: “My Heart Just Stopped After Missing A Free Throw”

The No.1 seed and the biggest favorites for winning the NCAA title, Duke Blue Devils barely won against the University Central Florida last night. In the most intense game of the March Madness so far, boys from Durham beat their opponents, 77-76.

But it could have easily gone the other way. And the Blue Devils have to thank Aubrey Dawkins for that. The guy who was their nightmare in this contest missed what should have been a plain and simple tip-in for the win. And for one of the biggest upsets in the college basketball history.

High above everybody else, Dawkins had the ball on the hand, but it didn’t go in after his attempt. BJ Taylor missed his tough shot, which was maybe under a foul, and Dawkins was there to correct that.

That is what most of the fans saw. Most of them were already seeing the headlines about UCF beating the No.1 seed.

But that didn’t happen.

It slowly bounced off the rim, and went out. The 23-year old sat on the floor of the Colonial Life Arena in Columbus, and started crying.

“Heartbreak,” Dawkins said. “When you invest this much in it, it breaks your heart.”

Still, this wasn’t his only mistake which influenced the game directly. There were two more. With 1:55 to go he missed a dunk after Dayon Griffin threw a pass for an alley-oop. Back then UCF had a 74-70 lead, and instantly after this situation, Cam Reddish hit nothing but the net from downtown and decreased the edge to only one point.

RJ Barrett managed to grab an offensive board over Dawkins after Zion Williams missed a free throw for a three-point play. He then scored two points to lift Duke to a one-point lead, and eventually set the final result.

Duke’s guard couldn’t hide his feelings after the game.

“Crazy,” he said after one reporter asked him how he saw the game. “Crazy game. I don’t know how to describe, but we won, so it’s good.”

It was the same with Zion Williams who admitted that he felt very relaxed after hearing the final buzzer. He and his team were not going home.

“Thank God for that. That tip, it could have rolled in, but it rolled out, and the ball bounced somewhere and the clock ran off. I was like, ‘we’re not going home,'” said the guy who could be in Dawkins’ spot.

Zion missed that one additional free throw, and if it weren’t for Barrett, we could be talking now about him being the reason for Duke’s elimination.

And you know how it goes in those situations. The snowball effect would be huge; all kinds of topics would emerge, “is he good enough for the No.1 pick?”, “should he wait for another season?”, etc.

Barrett prevented all that.

“My heart kind of stopped when I missed it, but when he got it, I was like “go up, go up, go up” and he made it,” Zion explained with a smile on his face. “I wanted to celebrate, but I had to get back on defense.”

So everything ended well for Duke. Luck was on their side in this one.

Though, DCF fans are complaining about the officials and their several decisions in the last few minutes. They are saying that Barrett pushed Dawkins and that Zion made an offensive charge before that free throw from which Duke’s guard score two points.

But that won’t change anything. The Knights are eliminated, and that is it. Even with all those things they had the chance to win.

Dawkins 32 points and his shooting clinic will be soon forgotten, and everyone will remember only his miss.

Krzyzewski’s boys will face Virginia Tech on Friday night in D.C.