Duke notes: Blue Devils' run bridging halves propels them to Elite 8

Duke's Kon Knueppel goes to the basket against Arizona's Carter Bryant, middle, and KJ Lewis. (Photo by Robert Deutsch/USA Today Sports Images)NEWARK, N.J. – For 19 minutes of Thursday night’s Duke-Arizona Sweet 16 game at Prudential Center, it was a dead-even battle.

Then the Blue Devils pressed the accelerator and hit a gear perhaps no other team in the country has.

A Kon Knueppel 3-pointer, and a Cooper Flagg trey from the top of the key at the first half buzzer, gave the Blue Devils the shot of adrenaline they needed.

And the trip to the locker room didn’t cool them off at all. In all it was a 20-5 run spanning the final minute of the first half, and the first 4:19 of the second, that…