Greenville, S.C. — Cameron Boozer scored 17 of his game-high 19 points in the second half to help lead No. 1 Duke past No. 9 TCU for an 81-58 victory in a second-round East Region matchup on Saturday.
Isaiah Evans added 17 points and Dame Sarr scored 14 for Duke (34-2), which advanced to the Sweet 16 against the winner of No. 4 Kansas and No. 5 St. John’s. Boozer added a game-high 11 rebounds while Maliq Brown finished with 12 points and nine rebounds for the Blue Devils, who outscored TCU by 19 points in the second half.
NCAA TOURNAMENT SCOREBOARD
Micah Robinson led TCU (23-12) with 18 points, followed by Xavier Edmonds’ 12. The Horned Frogs were outrebounded 42-25, but 24-14 during the second half.
Trailing by four at halftime, TCU opened the second half on a 6-0 run — including Brock Harding’s behind-the-back assist to Robinson — forcing Duke’s timeout with 16:11 remaining.
After Jayden Pierre’s layup tied the score at 44, Cayden and Cameron Boozer each completed a 3-point play and Nikolas Khamenia laced a 3-pointer to give the Blue Devils a 53-44 lead at the 11:48 mark.
Harding’s triple stopped the run, but Sarr’s stepback 3-pointer gave Duke its first double-digit lead at 57-47.
TCU head coach Jamie Dixon picked up a technical foul with 8:57 left, leading to Cayden Boozer’s two free throws and Sarr’s third 3-pointer that opened a 64-50 Blue Devils lead.
Cameron Boozer’s dunk and subsequent layup pushed the margin to 18.
The Horned Frogs went nearly five minutes without scoring before Pierre’s jumper cut Duke’s lead to 70-52 with 4:58 remaining. Brown’s dunk extended the lead to 22, icing the Blue Devils victory.
To a warm ovation from the Duke-heavy crowd, Patrick Ngongba II came off the bench early after a foot injury kept him out for five games. He made his first basket at the 15:29 mark of the first half, giving the Blue Devils a 9-7 lead.
TCU went ahead, 12-9, on Robinson’s five straight points before Evans’ triple stamped a 10-3 Duke spurt. Evans scored 11 straight for the Blue Devils, including a four-point play to give Duke a 27-22 lead.
After Brown’s dunk put Duke ahead by eight, TCU trimmed its deficit to two on Tanner Toolson’s corner trey with 1:12 remaining. Duke led 38-34 at halftime thanks to Evans’ 13 first-half points.
South Region
Houston 88, Texas A&M 57: At Oklahoma City, Emanuel Sharp scored 18 points and second-seeded Houston delivered an 18-0 knockout punch in the first half to sail to victory over 10th-seeded Texas A&M. Chris Cenac Jr. registered 17 points and nine rebounds and Milos Uzan added 15 points for the Cougars (30-6), who will face third-seeded Illinois in next week’s Sweet 16 in Houston.
Mercy Miller added 12 points as the Cougars notched their fifth consecutive 30-win campaign and reached the Sweet 16 for the seventh straight season. The only program with a longer streak this century was Gonzaga, which made nine straight Sweet 16 appearances from 2015-24.
Illinois 76, VCU 55: At Greenville, South Carolina, Andrej Stojakovic scored 16 of his 21 points in the first half to help No. 3 Illinois breeze past No. 11 VCU. Tomislav Ivisic added 14 points and 11 rebounds for Illinois (26-8), which advanced to its second Sweet 16 in 21 years. It will face No. 2 Houston on Thursday in Houston.
Keaton Wagler scored 14 and Kylan Boswell finished with 12 for the Fighting Illini, who won their first two NCAA Tournament games by a combined 56 points.
Terrence Hill Jr. led VCU (28-8) with 17 points and seven boards, while Barry Evans and Tyrell Ward had 11 each. The Rams shot just 7-for-32 (21.9%) on 3-point attempts in the lopsided loss.
Nebraska 74, Vanderbilt 72: At Oklahoma City, Braden Frager drove for the winning layup with 2.2 seconds left and fourth-seeded Nebraska rallied over fifth-seeded Vanderbilt. The result wasn’t secured until the Commodores’ Tyler Tanner, who scored a game-high 27 points, barely missed a 3-point shot from beyond halfcourt as time expired. Tanner’s heave hit the glass and went in and out, causing a gasp and then a wild ovation from the pro-Cornhusker crowd inside Paycom Center.
Prager and Pryce Sandfort each scored 15 points for Nebraska (28-6), which will play either top-seeded Florida or No. 9 Iowa Thursday in Houston. The Gators and Hawkeyes match up on Sunday night in Tampa.
Rienk Mast added 13 and Berke Buyuktuncel contributed 12 points for the Cornhuskers, who converted 29 of 52 field goal attempts, including 9 of 19 from the 3-point line. Nebraska will make its first Sweet 16 appearance.
Tyler Nickel added 16 points for Vanderbilt (27-9), which rallied in the second half by canning 10 of 22 3-pointers. Tanner’s layup gave the Commodores a 72-70 edge with 58 seconds remaining but Mast equalized with 37.0 seconds on the clock by tipping home Sam Hoiberg’s missed layup.
West Region
Texas 74, Gonzaga 68: At Portland, Oregon, Matas Vokietaitis and Jordan Pope scored 17 points apiece and Camden Heide hit a key 3-pointer with 14.7 seconds left to lift No. 11 seed Texas to a 74-68 victory over No. 3 seed Gonzaga.
With the Longhorns leading by one after a dunk by Gonzaga’s Graham Ike, Texas called a timeout with 32 seconds left and inserted Heide, whose 3-pointer from the right corner pushed the lead to 72-68.
Mario Saint-Supery missed a desperation Gonzaga 3-pointer and Vokietaitis hit a layup to close the scoring.
West Coast Conference Player of the Year Ike had 25 points and Jaden Warley had 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Saint-Supery had nine points and five assists.
Texas (21-14) is the first First Four winner to win at least three games in the tournament since 11th-seeded UCLA won five straight to reach the 2021 Final Four. The Longhorns will play the winner of No. 2 Purdue and No. 7 Miami in the West Region semifinals on March 26 in San Jose, California.
Gonzaga (31-4), the first No. 3 seed to lose in the tourney, had won at least two games in the NCAAs in nine of the previous 10 seasons. The Bulldogs were making their 27th straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
Arkansas 94, High Point 88: Darius Acuff Jr. of Detroit had 36 points, Meleek Thomas added 19, and the Razorbacks burst the Panthers’ tournament bubble, pulling away late for the victory in Portland, Ore.
Acuff scored nine of the Razorbacks’ last 11 points as they broke from a tie at 83-83 in the final three minutes to overcome a 30-point performance from High Point guard Rob Martin. Billy Richmond III had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Malique Ewin had 14 points and 12 boards for the Razorbacks (28-8), who have won seven in a row and nine of 10. Ewin’s two free throws with 44.4 seconds made it 92-85.
Cam’Ron Fletcher had 25 points and was two rebounds short of a third straight double-double and Terry Anderson had 15 points for High Point (31-5), which had a 15-game winning streak broken after posting the first NCAA Tournament win in school history Thursday.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: NCAA roundup: Cameron Boozer seizes control as Duke wears down TCU
Reporting by Detroit News wire services / The Detroit News
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