Cayden Boozer takes ownership of Duke loss to UConn: ‘I ruined our team’s season’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Cayden Boozer accepts blame for late turnover in loss that ended Duke’s season.
- UConn’s Braylon Mullins swished a near-halfcourt heave to beat Duke at the buzzer.
- Coach Scheyer says the loss resulted from many plays and lapses, not one play.
With blood on his jersey and tears in his eyes, Cayden Boozer wore a somber stare Sunday, trying to comprehend how a Final Four trip slipped away from him and his Duke teammates.
“I could have been strong with the ball and not turned it over,” the Blue Devils’ freshman point guard said. “I take full responsibility.”
Boozer’s turnover came as he attempted a pass to wide-open teammate Pat Ngongba with six seconds left and Duke up by two points. UConn’s Silas Demary, double-teaming Boozer along with teammate Braylon Mullins near halfcourt, tipped the ball before Mullins ran it down with 4.8 seconds left.
Three seconds later, Mullins fired a shot near the half-court logo that swished through the net with 0.4 seconds to play, lifting UConn to a miraculous, historic, 73-72 win over Duke.
Just like that, a Duke season ended after so much success, with so much left unattained.
Seconds away from a second consecutive Final Four, after leading by 19 points in the first half and 15 points at halftime, the Blue Devils (35-3) frittered away that lead until it was just a bucket with 10 seconds to play.
UConn had possession, trailing 72-69, with 28.8 seconds to play before Cameron Boozer committed a blocking foul near the 3-point line on a driving Demary, the Raleigh native and former Millbrook High player, with 10 seconds to play. Demary missed the first free throw but made the second.
With that, Duke’s Dame Sarr had the task of inbounding the basketball. The Blue Devils had a timeout available while UConn owned the possession arrow in case of a held ball.
Sarr ran the baseline before tossing it to Cameron Boozer, who fumbled it momentarily as two UConn defenders converged. With 8.9 seconds left, Boozer fired it back to Sarr under the basket, who caught it cleanly and saw Cayden Boozer wide open in the middle of the court but well shy of the half-court line.
Cayden Boozer caught Sarr’s pass with 7.5 seconds left, looked way downcourt and saw teammates Pat Ngongba and Isaiah Evans open. As Demary and Mullins converged, Boozer leaped in the air to pass the ball to Ngongba. But Demary tipped the ball in the air with 6.4 seconds left.
“I saw two guys open,” Cayden Boozer said. “I was just trying to get it there, but I could have taken my time. We just had a lot of time. I turned the ball over. I lost it. I ruined our team’s season.”
Mullins retrieved the ball from the other side of the mid-court line with 4.8 seconds to play and fired it to teammate Alex Karaban, who caught it with 2.7 seconds left before tossing it back to Mullins, who had crossed midcourt.
Mullins heaved the ball toward the basket with 1.8 seconds left. It swished through, leaving Duke time to throw a long in-bounds pass that was batted away to run out the clock.
“I’m incredibly sorry for these guys that they’ve got to go through this,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “This is on us. We’re going to be in this together. I don’t have words other than just how proud I am of these guys and how disappointed we are.”
It’s the second season in a row Duke held the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA Tournament only to suffer a gut-punch of a loss. Last year, at the Final Four, Duke squandered a 14-point lead while losing 70-67 to Houston.
This year, one win from the Final Four, Duke became the first No. 1 seed in NCAA Tournament history to lose a game it led by 15 points or more at halftime.
While Cayden Boozer bravely placed blame on himself for the loss, Sarr wouldn’t have it.
“I will never let him say that again, because he didn’t fail us at all,” Sarr said. “He picked us up.”
Sarr pointed to how Cayden Boozer stepped into the starting lineup in the postseason after Caleb Foster broke his foot on March 7. Duke won the ACC Tournament and its first two NCAA Tournament games without Foster before the junior returned of the two East Region games in Washington.
Duke shot well enough to win (52.6%) but turned the ball over 13 times, including eight in the second half as UConn slowly climbed back into the game. The Huskies scored 20 points off those miscues, including the final three courtesy of Mullins’ all-time March Madness moment.
“We just have to secure it, right?” Scheyer said of the final 10 seconds. “We got it. They had a foul. I was ready for a timeout. We’ve just got to hold on.
“It’s easy to look at that play -- I look at every play that happened, especially in that second half, this is not about one play. It’s about every play that put us in that position, and that’s what you don’t want to do, where one play something could happen. For me, look, it’s going to be tough, but it’s not going to be on one play.”
It turned out to be a play that will long live in March Madness lore and haunt the Blue Devils.
This story was originally published March 29, 2026 at 9:58 PM.