Duke; Houston rallies to beat Auburn

The Cougars (33-3) overcame a 10-point halftime deficit. Essentially shutting down the lane, Houston played with the desperation of a national championship contender that wasn’t ready to suffer the same fate as Purdue and Kansas — No. 1s that already were sent home.

Led by Tramon Mark with 26 points, Houston advanced to face either Indiana or Miami in the Midwest Region semifinals in Kansas City, Missouri, on Friday.

Johni Broome and Jaylin Williams each scored 14 points to lead the Tigers (21-13) were doomed by a stretch of more than 10 ½ minutes without a field goal and finished just 4 of 24 from the field in the second half.

SAN DIEGO ST. 75, FURMAN 52

ORLANDO, Fla. — San Diego State had little trouble ending the run of March Madness darling Furman, getting 16 points from Micah

Parrish to pace a balanced scoring attack.

Darrion Trammell had 13 points, Lamont Butler added 12 and leading scorer Matt Bradley finished with 10 for San Diego State (29-6), which is heading to its first Sweet 16 since 2004. The Aztecs have won 11 of their past 13 games and will play either Alabama or Maryland next week in the South Region semifinals in Louisville, Kentucky.

San Diego State is the first

Mountain West Conference team to reach the Sweet 16 since Nevada in 2018.

Mike Bothwell led the 13th-seeded Paladins (28-8) with 15 points. Furman had eliminated Virginia in the first round, the initial bracket-busting result in this year’s tournament.

UCLA 68, NORTHWESTERN 63

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 24 points and

UCLA withstood a second-half push from Northwestern to get back to the Sweet 16.

The second-seeded Bruins (31-5) turned up the defensive intensity late, holding the seventh-seeded Wildcats to 1-for-12 shooting during a key late-game stretch to seal the win.

The win was marred when David Singleton went down in extreme pain with a right leg injury with 20.3 seconds remaining.