NEWARK — One has to hand it to Duke: only these Blue Devils could make dismantling an opponent look this beautiful.

Duke put a very strong Alabama squad in a hole early and never let them out of it as it sailed from wire-to-wire for an 85-65 triumph in the NCAA Tournament East Region final on Saturday night at Prudential Center.

Blue Devils’ star Cooper Flagg didn’t shoot well and still ended up with 16 points, nine rebounds and three assists. But more importantly, he was part of Duke’s team defense pulling off the nifty trick of making Crimson Tide leading scorer Mark Sears — as well and the rest of the potent ’Bama defense — essentially disappear.

Duke had a 10-point lead in the first five minutes. Alabama cut the margin to four on four occasions but didn’t get it under six in the final 33:15.

No. 1-seeded Duke (35-3) advances to its 18th Final Four and will be seeking its sixth national championship. On Saturday in San Antonio, the Blue Devils will meet the winner of Sunday’s Midwest Region final between Houston and Tennessee in a national semifinal.

Kon Knueppel scored 21 points, Tyrese Proctor added 17 points and Khaman Maluach had 14 points for the Blue Devils, who shot 54% from the floor and limited the Tide to 35% shooting.

Duke has won four games in the tournament by an average of 23.5 points.

Labaron Philon had 16 points and Sears had just six on 2-for-12 shooting as No. 2 seed Alabama finished its season 28-9.

Duke ranks in the top four nationally in both offensive efficiency and defensive efficiency and played exactly like that in the first half as it took a 46-37 lead into the intermission. The Blue Devils scored 15 of the games first 20 points as they shot 56% from the floor.

The Crimson Tide were coming off a sensational 25-for-51 three-point shooting performance in the regional semifinal win over BYU, however the Blue Devils are a far superior defensive team than the Cougars and that turned up in ’Bama going 5-for-19 from beyond the arc before the break.

Flagg and Knueppel have been Duke’s first- and second-leading scorers this season and played their parts perfectly in the first half. At the break, Knueppel had 11 points and Flagg 10.

Conversely, Sears had only two points and got off only four shots. And Alabama, which ranks first in the nation in pace of play, at times had trouble getting a shot off before the shot-clock buzzer.

Duke grabbed its biggest lead of the half when Maluach finished an alley-oop from Tyrese Proctor with 6:47 left. Alabama threatened to get back into it with a 7-0 run but wasn’t able to get it to even a one-possession game as Duke closed the half on a 12-6 run.