Tennessee struggles to put away Louisiana
Tennessee led by 18 points and appeared headed to an easy firstround victory against Louisiana in the final game at Amway Center on Thursday night.
It became more complicated down the stretch as the Ragin’ Cajuns made it a one-possession game with 23 seconds left before the Vols pulled out a 58-55 victory. Tyreke Key led them with 12 points off the bench as they advance to play Duke on Saturday here in the second round. Tennessee had 18 turnovers. Blue Devils dominate: As Jeremy Roach drove on the baseline, the window of opportunity at the basket started to disappear. Undeterred, the Duke guard spun around for a reverse layup that drew “oohs and aahs” from the crowd at Amway Center as the No. 5 seed Blue Devils pulled away from the No. 12 Oral Roberts 74-51 in their first-round NCAA tournament game Thursday.
Roach finished with game-high 23 points as Duke cruised to the second round Saturday.
It was the largest margin of victory for a Blue Devils team in the NCAA tournament since an 87-62 win over Pittsburgh in 2018.
Duke raced out to an 11-0 lead as Oral Roberts missed its first eight shots from the floor to start the game. The lead grew to 15-0 as the Golden Eagles went scoreless for more than eight minutes before DeShang Weaver’s layup ended the drought.
The Blue Devils expanded their lead to as many as 20 points at 38-18 with 1:09 left in the first before guard Max Abmas scored 5 points on the final two Oral Roberts possessions to pull to 40-23 at the half.
This was Oral Roberts’ second appearance in the NCAA tournament in the past three seasons, with the Golden Eagles advancing to the Sweet 16 in 2021 after upsets over Ohio State and Florida.
Dariq Whitehead had 13 points for the Blue Devils.