Ashlon Jackson’s buzzer-beating 3 for Duke stuns LSU and etches its place in March Madness lore

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — It took Ashlon Jackson a long time to get to bed after hitting the latest memorable buzzer-beater in March Madness, a 3-pointer in the women’s NCAA Tournament that kept Duke’s season alive.

There were hundreds of text and social media messages to respond to, including one from Kevin Durant. Jackson laughed when asked if the NBA star had her phone number, saying, “no, no, no.” He reached out via social media; she did respond to him.

Jackson apologized because she wasn’t able to get to everyone, but she needed to eventually get some sleep — which finally happened around 2 a.m.

“I try to respond to as many people as I can, you know,” Jackson said. “Because you’re very grateful that they were watching women’s basketball. So, I try to show my gratefulness. but I haven’t been able to get back to everyone.”

The Duke senior said she had to finally stop looking at her phone because her shot was unavoidable on social media.

“Every time I scroll, I see it,” she said. “I kind of got tired of seeing it, so I just put my phone down. I just replay in my head the ball spinning and spinning. I’m like, oh, I don’t want to see that.”

The ball kept on going to the basket, spinning around and hitting every part of the rim.

Jackson remembered when she was younger watching some of the great March Madness buzzer-beaters that she is now forever linked with.

Her 3-pointer may not have had the same magnitude as Morgan William’s shot for Mississippi State that ended UConn’s 111-game winning streak in the 2017 national semifinals or Arike Ogunbowale’s game-ending 3s for Notre Dame in the Final Four and NCAA championship game a year later.

Still, it’s a shot that Duke fans will remember for a long time because it lifted the third-seeded Blue Devils to an 87-85 win over No. 2 seed LSU on Friday night in the Sacramento 2 Regional.

“I’m still feeling like I’m on cloud nine a little bit,” Jackson said. “But I know that we got another game tomorrow, so I’m like, OK, I can deal with this.”

With Duke trailing by one point with 2.6 seconds left, Jackson caught the ball on the wing and faked out LSU defender Flau’Jae Johnson before putting up the shot right in front of the Blue Devils’ bench. The shot rolled around the rim several times before dropping in, setting off a wild celebration.

“My teammates and my coaches, they trust me and they believe in me,” said Jackson, who missed six of her first seven 3-pointers in the game. “And whenever shots aren’t really falling for me, I can’t really hang my head. That’s just how the game goes. Every competitor knows that.”

Jackson said it was her first game-ending shot.

“Never had a game-winner. Plenty of buzzer-beaters before,” Jackson said. “The way it went in, I felt like I was in a dream and it was playing back over and over again before the ball went in.”

LSU coach Kim Mulkey has seen a lot in her long coaching career. She’s been on both sides of it.

“I’ve been doing this a long time. Lost a national championship with seven-tenths to go. Been in those situations before,” Mulkey said. “Heartbreaking for your team and your players and fans. Been around a long time and seen endings like that. Been a part of those endings. Takes a while to get over it.”

Duke doesn’t have much time to enjoy the win; the Blue Devils face top-seeded UCLA in the Elite Eight of the Sacramento 2 Region on Sunday. The Bruins beat Minnesota in the other regional semifinal.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness