Duke ousts Houston, joins N.C. State, Purdue, Tennessee in Elite Eight – Daily News

Kyle Filipowski and Duke got pushed around again in the NCAA Tournament. This time, the Blue Devils responded to set up a Tobacco Road showdown in Big D for a spot in the Final Four.

The 7-foot sophomore center had 16 points and nine rebounds, Jeremy Roach scored all 14 of his points after halftime, and Duke advanced to the Elite Eight with a 54-51 victory over top-seeded Houston, which played the final 26 minutes Friday night without All-America point guard Jamal Shead after he turned his right ankle.

Even with Shead on the bench, the fourth-seeded Blue Devils (27-8) had to overcome a physical defense that has been one of the best in the country all season. They won despite a season low in points.

“Any questions about their mental toughness or their heart, I think they answered those tonight,” second-year coach Jon Scheyer said.

Duke was ousted in the second round a year ago when Filipowski, Roach and the Blue Devils were bullied in a 65-52 loss to Tennessee, their fewest points last season.

“This game right here was that same type of game. Just a great, gritty team and their culture. Just seeing the togetherness, how we didn’t quit out there tonight, that really shows the growth from last year,” Filipowski said. “We remember how upset we were from last year, and we didn’t want to repeat that again.”

They didn’t, and will play in the South Region final on Sunday in Dallas against an Atlantic Coast Conference rival, No. 11 seed North Carolina State.

The Wolfpack, the only double-digit seed left in this NCAA Tournament, beat No. 2 seed Marquette, 67-58, their eighth win in a row in a streak that included a 74-69 victory over the Blue Devils just two weeks ago in the ACC Tournament.

“It’s going to be crazy. A rematch of the ACC Tournament,” Roach said. “They’re on a crazy run.”

L.J. Cryer scored 15 points for Houston and J’Wan Roberts had 13. Shead finished with two points on 1-for-5 shooting with three assists and two steals.

Shead departed with 6:38 left in the first half after his right foot turned awkwardly on a drive while missing a contested layup. By then, he had been on the floor under the basket for about 15 seconds while play continued at the other end until Houston got the ball after a Duke miss.

The senior guard, who has been part of 120 wins at Houston in his four seasons, reached for his foot when he went down and then pulled his jersey up over his face. He walked gingerly to the locker room after getting tended to by an athletic trainer, then sat on the bench throughout the second half. He limped off the court after the Cougars (32-5) became the second No. 1 seed knocked out – a night after North Carolina lost to Alabama.

“I hate that it ended like this. I wish I could have got back out there and at least been in the fight,” Shead said. “It would have been different if I could have at least limped around a little bit and fought a little bit.”

The Blue Devils trailed 16-10 when Shead exited, and never led until Tyrese Proctor’s two free throws made it 21-20 with 2:46 left in the first half. They never trailed again.

“It didn’t feel like a fair fight. Two of theirs equals one of Jamal. That’s how good he was. You don’t have another one of those,” Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson said. “You don’t have the best defensive player in the Big 12. You don’t have the guy who made all the big shots at the end.”

Duke never led by more than six points, the last at 54-48 on Roach’s jumper in the lane with 1:15 left. Emanuel Sharp converted a three-point play with 48 seconds left for the Cougars, and they got the ball back one more time after a miss by Filipowski with 25 seconds left.

A tough 3-point try by Sharp over Proctor was no good, and there was less than a second on the clock when Houston guard Mylik Wilson was out of bounds on the floor when trying to get the rebound.

Duke finished with 14 turnovers, but that was after three on its first four possessions and falling behind 8-0 in the first 3½ minutes.

Duke reached its 24th Elite Eight, matching Kansas for the third-most times getting that far in March Madness – trailing Kentucky (38) and North Carolina (29).

The ACC has three teams in the Elite Eight, including Clemson, which faces Alabama in the West Region final on Saturday at Crypto.com Arena. The league is 11-2 in this NCAA Tournament, and that includes Virginia losing in the First Four.

In Friday’s other NCAA Tournament games …

North Carolina State 67, Marquette 58: DJ Horne blew kisses to the crowd and blew off the notion of North Carolina State as a Cinderella.

As for their opportunity to create a replay of 1983, yeah, the Wolfpack are aware.

Horne scored 19 points and 11th-seeded N.C. State (25-14) kept its magical NCAA Tournament run alive, beating second-seeded Marquette to reach the Elite Eight for the first time since 1986.

Casey Morsell added 15 points and Mohamed Diarra had 11 points and 15 rebounds in N.C. State’s eighth consecutive victory since the start of the ACC Tournament, which the Wolfpack had to win even to be a part of March Madness.

On the 50th anniversary of N.C. State’s first national championship in 1974 – when the Wolfpack beat the Golden Eagles for the title – it’s beginning to look a lot like the second one nine years after that.

“It’s magical, but I’m going to say we knew this from day one,” said Horne, whose team lost seven of nine to finish the regular season. “We knew we were a good team. It was all a matter of just locking in and understanding our roles, and no better time to be doing that than now.”

N.C. State now gets an all-ACC duel with Duke for a spot in the Final Four.

The last time the Wolfpack went that far, 41 years ago, they had to win the ACC Tournament before the late Jim Valvano sprinted around the court trying to find someone to hug after a still-talked-about upset of high-flying Houston for the title.

The Cougars won’t be the opponent in the South Region final because of the Blue Devils’ 54-51 victory. But there are still plenty of reasons to be flashing back to 1983.

The lower-key Kevin Keatts is in charge of the latest unlikely crew, with a big personality between the lines in 6-foot-9, 275-pound forward DJ Burns Jr., whose spinning layup and five assists helped the Wolfpack build a 13-point halftime lead.

“We don’t have to talk about that history because we celebrate it the entire time,” Keatts said. “It’s been talked about since I’ve been here, and it’s going to be talked about as long as we ever are going to remember.”

The Golden Eagles (27-10) couldn’t overcome an unsightly shooting performance in their first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2013. They finished 4 for 31 (12.9%) from 3-point range and shot 33.3% overall.

“Our mentality is even if we have a tough shooting night, find a way to win anyway,” Coach Shaka Smart said. “And we weren’t quite good enough on the defensive end to get that done with the shooting night that we had.”

Kam Jones scored 20 points and point guard Tyler Kolek had 17 points and 10 rebounds as a Big East team lost for the first time in eight games in this tournament.

Smart, in his third season at Marquette, is 0-2 in the NCAA Tournament in Texas – including North Carolina’s first-round blowout two years ago – after failing to win a tournament game in six seasons leading the Longhorns.

“The worst part about losing today is that we don’t have practice tomorrow,” Smart said. “We don’t have another game to prepare for.”

N.C. State found the same balance that led to five players leading the team in scoring during the current winning streak. Horne did it for the third time.

Horne answered two brief Marquette runs with 3-pointers, blowing a kiss to the Golden Eagles fans behind their team’s bench after the first and gesturing toward his supporters near the N.C. State bench after the second.

Marquette was within eight when Jones missed an open 3-pointer with six minutes to go. The Golden Eagles couldn’t get closer than six after trailing by 16 early in the second half.

“People still don’t think we’re supposed to be here, that we’re going to go further,” said Burns, who had four points and seven assists. “We’re going to keep trying to crash the party.”

The finish of the first half said it all as the Golden Eagles finished with a season low in points.

After Oso Ighodaro missed a dunk, Marquette got the rebound, only for David Joplin to miss a 3-point attempt to drop to 0 for 5 from deep before the break.

Joplin was fouled on a 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds remaining in the first half, and missed all three free throws.

“Just keeping faith in the guys and keep giving them confidence because I’m going to keep finding them, and they know that,” said Kolek, who was limited to three assists after leading the nation at nearly eight per game. “They know I got the confidence in them to keep shooting it.”

Purdue 80, Gonzaga 68: They leaned on him. They jawed at him. One time, they slapped him right across the forehead. None of it came close to stopping Purdue’s big man, Zach Edey, and now he and the Boilermakers are one win away from the Final Four.

The 7-foot-4 Edey withstood all the abuse Gonzaga could lay on him, finishing with 27 points and 14 rebounds to lift Purdue to an 80-68 victory over the Bulldogs in a Midwest Region semifinal in Detroit.

There were highlights galore in the top-seeded Boilermakers’ 32nd victory of the season, including a 14-point, 15-assist, eight-rebound masterpiece from guard Braden Smith.

No moment, though, told the story better than at the end of the first half when Edey had Gonzaga’s Ben Gregg pinned underneath the basket. Gregg, in a desperation move to make a play, flailed at the ball and ended up roundhousing Edey full-on in the forehead with his open hand, picking up his third foul.

“It didn’t feel good,” Edey said to a room full of laughs. “Obviously, he was just trying to make a play for the ball, just missed it and whack-a-moled my head a little bit.”

On Sunday, Purdue, which last year became history’s second first-round loser as a No. 1 seed, will play second-seeded Tennessee, and a win there would land the program in the Final Four for the first time since 1980.

Smith finished two assists shy of joining Joe Barry Carroll – who played on Purdue’s last Final Four squad – as the program’s second player to record a triple-double. Smith made two of Purdue’s seven 3-pointers in the first half, all of which forced Gonzaga into a choice no team wants to make – take away the 3-pointers or sag down on Edey, the nation’s leading scorer.

“It’s pick your poison,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “They shot it great from 3, and then in the second half, we shut down that area pretty good. Then, Edey was just a load.”

Once Edey got loose, foul trouble and an ever-shrinking basket ended the hopes for the fifth-seeded Zags.

Graham Ike had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Bulldogs, who shot only 38% over the first 15 minutes of the second half and fell to 0-3 vs. Edey and the Boilermakers over the past two seasons.

As Purdue’s lead mushroomed, the arena in Detroit sounded more like Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana. The Boilermakers, long seen as underachievers when the lights get bright in March, have a chance to play in April this time.

“We’ve had some experience in the tournament,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “We’ve had disappointment, and I think any time you have that, you appreciate things a little bit more, and your attention to detail is a little bit better.”

Like all Gonzaga big men, Ike spent the evening in foul trouble; he got his fifth and trudged off the court for good with 5:07 left. His second foul came halfway through the second half after he and Edey tussled in the paint, then jawed at each other after the ref’s whistle. That didn’t throw Edey off his game, either.

“I think he did a good job tonight of doing that – just keep your mouth shut and carry a big stick,” Painter said.

Edey made one of two free throws there, but followed with a couple baby hooks as part of a 10-0 run that made this a 16-point game.

All par for the course for last season’s AP Player of the Year, who pretty much has a double-double when he rolls out of bed in the morning. He recorded his 27th of the season and 66th of his career at the 14:44 mark of the second half. The 10th rebound came on the offensive glass and was part of a five-shot trip down the court that Edey sealed with a jumper in the paint.

Edey finished the evening 10 for 15 from the floor and 7 for 10 from the line. He drew nine fouls, seven more than anyone else on his team. He didn’t have a block but made things difficult on Gonzaga from his low spot in Purdue’s zone – altering no fewer than a half-dozen shots in the second half.

Few said the loss couldn’t obscure Gonzaga’s strong finish to the season. After fearing they might miss the tournament altogether, the Zags won 16 of their last 19.

“They doubled down, and they showed their real character and competed and then got even closer instead of pulling apart,” Few said.

Tennessee 82, Creighton 75: Dalton Knecht was all over the court, jumping into passing lanes for steals, shooting 3-pointers, driving and dishing to set up teammates for shots.

He wasn’t alone.

Tennessee, with its relentless defense from logo to rim and unselfish offense, was too much for Creighton.

Knecht had 24 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals, and the Volunteers moved within a victory of their first trip to the Final Four, beating the Bluejays in a Midwest Region semifinal in Detroit.

“He was trying to rebound the ball and was really engaged defensively and wasn’t thinking, score, score score,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said.

Zakai Zeigler added 18 points and six assists and Josiah-Jordan James scored 17 points for the second-seeded Volunteers.

When Tennessee lost last year in the regional semifinals for the second straight season, Knecht was at Northern Colorado and Zeigler was out with a torn knee ligament.

Tennessee (27-8) matched the longest NCAA Tournament run in school history and hopes to get farther than the 2010 team that lost by one point to Michigan State in the Elite Eight.

“We’re ready to go out there and hopefully make some history,” Knecht said.

Tennessee will face top-seeded Purdue, with both schools seeking an elusive Final Four appearance.

The third-seeded Bluejays (25-10) reached the Sweet 16 for the third time in four years and fell a win short of equaling their first regional final appearance from last year.

“The further we get away from this game, the more I’ll appreciate it,” said Ryan Kalkbrenner, who had 14 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots.

Baylor Scheierman, a third-team All-America wing, scored 25 points. But some of his teammates struggled against Tennessee’s strong, persistent defense.

“That’s what we do, and I think it separates us as a team,” guard Jahmai Mashack said. “To sustain that as long as we do, that wears on teams.”

Tennessee went on a breathtaking 18-0 run early in the second half – taking a 55-39 lead – that forced Creighton coach Greg McDermott to call two timeouts because he didn’t want to wait for a TV stoppage to stem the tide.

Scheierman made a 3-pointer to end the drought and later had a three-point play during a 9-0 run that pulled the Bluejays within three points with 6:04 left.

McDermott said he played a triangle-and-2 defense for the first time this season, fueling his team’s rally to make it close.

“It’s called desperation,” he said.

Knecht made a pair of 3-pointers that restored six-point leads and Zeigler set up Tobe Awaka for a three-point play that put the Vols ahead 71-64 with 1:39 to go.

During the pivotal burst early in the second half, Knecht was at his best.

The 6-foot-6 wing, who previously played at Northern Colorado and Northeastern Junior College, became the first former junior college player to earn All-America recognition since Larry Johnson in 1991.