NCAA Basketball Tournament: The Final Four : The Final Nobody Expected : P.J. Shows Duke That Seton Hall Is King, 95-78

How clear it seemed that the promise of this Duke team had finally come.

Danny Ferry was displaying all the storied savvy that has marked his career, the same that has helped Duke to the Final Four three times in four years.

Seton Hall was flustered and ineffective and looking like the newcomer it is. The Pirates were down 18 points before the game was 12 minutes old.

But then slowly at first, and then more and more surely, it changed, and Duke (28-8) tumbled again.

The benefactor this time was Seton Hall (31-6), a team that was picked to finish seventh in the Big East Conference and now can do no worse than second in the country after a 95-78 victory in a National Collegiate Athletic Assn. semifinal at the Kingdome Saturday.

The Pirates ended Ferry’s career and Quin Snyder’s Seattle homecoming two days early, sending Seton Hall and Coach P.J. Carlesimo into their first NCAA final.

They will play Michigan on Monday for the national championship.

Who could have foretold it?

Certainly not Ferry. Despite Daryll Walker’s persistent defense, Ferry scored 21 points in the first half.

Ferry backed in, muscling Walker toward the basket, then pulled back for a jumper. Ferry drove, or he pushed Walker’s thin arms away for a turnaround. Before Seton Hall was used to the Kingdome, Duke led 26-8.

Seton Hall did not its make first field goal until four minutes were gone, and didn’t make its second until more than eight had passed.

As Ferry would put it later, in a quiet steady voice, “When you’re up by 18, you have to be fairly confident.”

As Carlesimo would put it afterward: “It looked like they were going to blow us out of here.”

Down by 18 after little more than 11 minutes, Seton Hall’s chances seemed shot.

But then Seton Hall’s Ramon Ramos, ineffective much of the first half, pulled down an offensive rebound and turned it into a three-point play.

Walker made a steal off the press, and quickly popped a short jumper, and the lead was down to 13.

Later, with three minutes left in the half, Gerald Greene made a three-pointer. So did Nick Katsikis, off the bench. The lead was five. Timeout, Duke. At halftime, Duke lead by only five, 38-33.

Carlesimo, who had dumped his jacket early in the game, spoke to his players.

“He said we had to do the little things,” Anthony Avent said. “But the main thing we had to do was calm down.”

Did they ever.

Duke, playing with unusual combinations of players on the floor because of an thigh injury to Robert Brickey in the early minutes of the game, and later because of freshman center Christian Laettner’s foul trouble, began to struggle offensively.

Seton Hall began to close the lead, and took its first at 50-49 on Michael Cooper’s fastbreak layup.

Ferry would turn cold, in part because of the defense of Walker and Frantz Volcy, in part because, he began to rush his shots as his third and final Final Four began to slip away.

He missed from three-point range, and then a layup. He missed six-of-seven shots. And Seton Hall, hitting 22 of 31 in the second half, began to pull away.

With the score, 67-61, Snyder tried an ill-advised three, and missed badly. Then Andrew Gaze, the Pirates’ Australian scoring machine who had scored only four points in the first half, showed him how it was done, knocking down his first three.

Snyder tried again and hit, cutting the lead back to 70-64.

And Gaze put another three pointer back in his face. It was 73-64, and for Duke, it was not to be.

Ferry finished with 34 points, and left the game in the final minute to watch his career end.

“I was tired,” Ferry said. “But I would have played longer. I wish we could have played 20 more minutes to have a shot to win. . . . The thing I’ll remember more than anything else is the year we had and these four years. You couldn’t ask for more.”

But you could hope for it.

By the time the score was 81-68, Seton Hall, Ferry’s savvy was shrinking away, as he saw his third and final trip to the Final Four coming to an end.

In frustration, he turned to official Larry Lembo, wanting a call.

“What about the foul?”

What about it?

Gaze, who finished with team-high 20 points turned to Lembo to set the record straight, as he saw it.

“He didn’t get fouled. There was no foul.”

The winner’s word stood.

Duke’s Coach Mike Krzyzewski, after three Final Fours and no championships, says he will not die unfulfilled if he never wins. But it was harder to bid this class goodby.

They don’t have another chance.

Snyder’s homecoming ended with 3:39 still left in the game when he committed his fifth foul with his team trailing by 15.

“Life is full of successes,” Snyder said. “And the more successes the better.”

What was left unstated was the most painful--the success that eluded him, Ferry and John Smith.

This team--these seniors--had success. Three Final Fours in four years.

“That doesn’t make it easier to end with this,” Snyder said. “It’s an empty feeling and it’s hard to accept.” For Seton Hall, it is not yet time to accept.

“You’ve got second place,” Carlesimo told him team. “But we can’t be satisfied with that.”