The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Duke races past rival UNC
Jayson Tatum scored 24 points and No. 14 Duke rallied past No. 6 North Carolina with another lightning-fast surge in the second half, taking advantage of foul trouble for Tar Heels point guard Joel Berry II and beating its fierce rival 93-83 on Friday night in the Atlantic Coast Conference semifinals in New York.
Luke Kennard had 20 points and Grayson Allen added 18 off the bench for the Blue Devils (26-8), who will play for the title Saturday night in Brooklyn against No. 16 Florida State or No. 22 Notre Dame.
By winning the second game between the teams in seven days, fifth-seeded Duke took two of three in the season series against the top-seeded Tar Heels (27-7). It was their first ACC Tournament matchup since the Blue Devils won the 2011 championship game.
The rubber match this year was settled on the streets of New York City rather than Tobacco Road, some 500 miles from the Dean Dome and Cameron Indoor Stadium as the ACC took its postseason showcase to the Big Apple for the first time. NO. 2 VILLANOVA 55, SETON HALL 53 » At New York, Josh Hart scored 19 points, including the game-winning basket with 9.6 sec- onds to play in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament.
Hart’s three-point play on a rebound was the fifth lead change of the final 4 minutes and there were two ties. There was almost a third as Seton Hall’s Angel Delgado, the nation’s leading rebounder, missed a shot from in close with 1 second left. NO. 8 KENTUCKY 71, GEORGIA 60 » At Nashville, Tennessee, Isaiah Briscoe and De’Aaron Fox each scored 20 points, Bam Adebayo added 13 in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
Coming off a double bye as the No. 1 seed, the wellrested Wildcats started both halves quickly and steadily pulled away for a double-digit win over the Bulldogs after two close victories. Kentucky (27-5) offset 38 percent shooting by holding Georgia to 19 of 57 from the field (33 percent) and leading by as many as 18 in its tournament opener. NO. 12 SMU 81, ECU 77 » At Hartford, Semi Ojeleye scored a career-high 36 points and No. 12 SMU held off East Carolina in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference Tournament.
The conference’s player of the year hit 12 of his 19 shots and pulled down 12 rebounds, giving him his fifth double- double this season.
Sterling Brown added 16 points for SMU (28- 4). The AAC’s regular- season champions have won 14 straight and 24 of their last 25 games. MICHIGAN 74, NO. 13 PURDUE 70 (OT) » At Washington, Two days after its airplane’s scary abandoned takeoff, Michigan’s wild journey carried right on into the Big Ten semifinals with an overtime upset of 13th-ranked Purdue behind D. J. Wilson’s 26 points.
The eighth-seeded Wolverines (22-11) got 13 points from Zak Irvin, including their first four of the extra period, against the No. 1 seed Boilermakers (25-7). NO. 15 CINCINNATI 80, TULSA 61 » At Hartford, Kyle Washington scored 21 points and Jacob Evans added 20 to lead Cincinnati to a rout of Tulsa in the American Athletic Conference quarterfinals.
Troy Caupain added 15 points for the Bearcats (28-4), who led for all but 17 seconds and by as many as 24 points.
Corey Henderson Jr. had 15 points and Sterling Taplin scored 10 for Tulsa, which lost three of its final four games to finish the season 15-17. NO. 23 IOWA ST. 84, TCU 63 » At Kansas City, Missouri, Deonte Burton scored 22 points, Monte Morris had 15 and No. 23 Iowa State routed TCU to reach its third Big 12 Tournament title game in the past four seasons.