March Madness: Villanova, Duke, Kansas and Texas Tech head to Elite Eight
Top-seeded Villanova prevailed over West Virginia 90-78 to secure a spot in th Elight Eight, their second trip to the regional finals in three seasons. In the midwest, Duke denied 11th seed Syracuse the chance to move on, with Duke topping Orange 69-65. Kansas overtook Clemson in a too-close-for-comfort 80-76, putting the top-seeded Jayhawks in the Elite Eight for the second year in a row. And Texas Tech will be headed to the Elite Eight for the first time in its history with a 78-65 victory over Purdue.
Villanova-West Virginia
Villanova's 3-point party rolled past the intense pressure of West Virginia to bring the Wildcats to the doorstep of another Final Four two seasons after winning a national championship. The top-seeded Wildcats continued their outside feast in the NCAA Tournament, downing the fifth-seeded Mountaineers 90-78 on Friday night to earn their second trip to the regional finals in three seasons.
Jalen Brunson led Villanova with 27 points and Omari Spellman had 18 with eight rebounds as Villanova overcame the West Virginia press by hitting 13 of 24 shots from 3-point range.
Daxter Miles had 16 points to lead West Virginia. Jevon Carter and Sagaba Konate added 12 each.
Villanova (33-4) has now made 47 3-pointers for the tournament. The outside barrage helped the Wildcats overcome 16 turnovers and played into their Sweet 16 plan for the team nicknamed "Press Virginia": Attack the stifling defense head-on.
"What a game, man. I hope that looked as good as it did from the bench, man," Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "That was the most physically demanding, mentally draining 40 minutes we've played in a long time. They are so relentless."
The Wildcats struggled at times, especially in the first half, but dug out of a six-point hole in the second half with an 11-0 run.
The Mountaineers (26-11) stayed close throughout, ramping up the pressure and making Villanova play faster than it wanted to early. But foul trouble throughout the second half was too much for West Virginia to overcome after it gave up the lead.
Carter was called for his third with 17:33 left in the game. That was followed by Miles being whistled for his third and fourth fouls over a two minute stretch that sent him to the bench with 15 minutes remaining.
Coach Bob Huggins said the fouls "absolutely" stifled the Mountaineers' ability to keep pressure on Villanova.
"When the whistle keeps blowing it really takes away your aggression," he said.
West Virginia adjusted for a while, taking advantage of a more than three-minute Villanova scoring drought to take a 60-54 edge with just over 11 minutes left.
But Villanova heated up again. Its 11-point run was capped by a thunderous block and dunk on the other end by Omari Spellman that pushed the Wildcats back in front 65-60.
The Wildcats kept the momentum going, stretching the lead to 76-66 on a 3-pointer by Brunson.
"The deeper you go, the better the teams are going to be," Brunson said. "For us, most importantly, nothing changes no matter who we play, where we play, what time we play. We play every game like it's our last."
West Virginia never got closer than 4 points the rest of the way.
"I felt like we gave it everything we had," Carter said. "We just didn't make shots tonight and Villanova did."
Villanova led 44-42 at the half after a fast-paced opening 20 minutes. Brunson led all scorers with 16 points in the half, with West Virginia getting 11 points from Daxter Miles.
The Wildcats came out firing, connecting on their first seven field goals. They handled the Mountaineers' pressure well early. But the Wildcats had three turnovers over a 65-second stretch during an 8-0 Mountaineers run that put them in front 33-30.
Wright said he never lost faith in his team.
"I just looked at Jalen, Mikal (Bridges) and Phil (Booth) and I could see in their eyes we were good," he said.
Duke-Syracuse
Duke found a way to crack Syracuse's zone defense, and now the Blue Devils are back in the Elite Eight for the first time since the 2015 team won it all.
Gary Trent Jr., made two clutch free throws with 6.3 seconds left to help second-seeded Duke hold off the 11th-seeded Orange in a 69-65 chess match of a victory in the Midwest Region semifinals Friday night.
All that talk about busted brackets and the maddest March ever - not happening in the Midwest.
The win by Duke (29-7) set up a 1 vs. 2 showdown Sunday against Kansas, which also escaped with a four-point win earlier against Clemson.
Syracuse (23-14), the last at-large team invited to the tournament, saw its unlikely run to the Sweet 16 end - unable to overcome 16 turnovers against a Mike Krzyzewski-designed zone that was every bit as pesky as Jim Boeheim's vaunted 2-3.
Krzyzewski tore off his jacket and threw it to the floor, frustrated after calling a timeout early in the second half.
"It set the tone for me," he said. "You could see. I coach 'em, so I could see, they were real young. They had young looks. Thank goodness they got out of it."
Syracuse was looking for a near-repeat of two seasons ago when it made the Final Four as a 10 seed. This year, the Orange was an 11, but the Elite Eight already has one of those - Loyola-Chicago in the South.
Syracuse is no typical 11, and this was a zone-centric battle of wits between two of the most renowned coaches in the game.
No lead ever reached double digits, and not until Trent Jr. swished his free throws was the game sealed for Duke.
Freshman Marvin Bagley III scored 13 of his 22 points and had all eight of his rebounds in the second half. Seven of those boards were on the offensive end and led to second-chance baskets.
Tyus Battle led the Orange with 19 points.
Texas Tech-Purdue
Texas Tech is headed to the Elite Eight for the first time in program history.
Keenan Evans had 16 points and the third-seeded Red Raiders overcame an early first half hole and dominated second-seeded Purdue down the stretch to earn a 78-65 victory in the Sweet 16 on Friday night.
Texas Tech will play top seed Villanova in the East regional final Sunday.
Zach Smith added 14 points and five rebounds.
Texas Tech trailed by as many as 7 points in the first half. But it closed the period on a 10-0 run to take a 30-25 halftime advantage. Purdue got it down to 1 early in the second but the Red Raiders never surrendered the lead.
Carsen Edwards led Purdue with 30 points, including four 3-pointers.
The Boilermakers (30-7) were playing in their second straight regional semifinal. They were denied what would have been their first Elite Eight berth since 2000.
Purdue came in ranked second nationally in 3-point percentage and connected on 7 of 18 for the game. But the Boilermakers allowed the Red Raiders 17 second-chance points.
Texas Tech (27-9) also got 33 points from its bench, compared to just 6 for Purdue.
Kansas-Clemson
For the third year in a row, Kansas made it through the Sweet 16 - although not before Clemson tried its hardest to add another wild chapter to an already unbelievable tournament.
The top-seeded Jayhawks brought at least a temporary halt to the insanity of this March, withstanding a ferocious rally by fifth-seeded Clemson on Friday for a too-close-for-comfort, 80-76 victory.
Malik Newman led the Jayhawks (30-7) with 17 points in a one-time runaway that got much closer and, quite frankly, won't mean much to KU fans if their team can't finish the job in the Midwest Region final Sunday.
As a top seed the last two seasons, Kansas made it through the regional semifinals, only to flop a game shy of the Final Four both times. In fact, this marks the sixth time Bill Self's team has been seeded first since KU won it all in 2008; the Jayhawks haven't made the Final Four one of those times.
"I think about it all the time. I just told the guys in the locker room...this year, we've got to get over the hump," said senior Devonte' Graham, who had 16 points.
Still, it could've ended on Friday - in horrifying fashion - after Clemson stormed back from a 20-point deficit that stunned a crowd filled mostly with fans from Lawrence and surrounding areas, which are only a few hours from Omaha.
"We just kind of played not to lose down the stretch," Self said.
Clemson trailed 62-42, but climbed to within six with 2:27 left. Graham's offensive rebound after a Svi Mykhailiuk miss at the 1:57 mark allowed the Jayhawks to run almost a minute off the clock.
Kansas didn't score after Graham's rebound, and the Tigers got the next board for a chance to cut it to a one-possession game. But Shelton Mitchell and Gabe DeVoe each missed from beyond the arc. From there, Kansas overcame a dogged Clemson press just long enough to ensure that the Tigers couldn't pull any closer until the tail end.
DeVoe had a career-high 31 for Clemson (25-10), which couldn't replicate the magic it showed in beating Auburn by 31 to reach its first Sweet 16 in 21 years.
"We didn't have our best game. Sometimes that's not easy to keep fighting like that," Clemson coach Brad Brownell said.