Vols beat up Devils to move to Sweet 16
Olivier Nkamhoua was a little hesitant to enter Tennessee’s postgame locker room after a career performance against powerhouse Duke in the NCAA Tournament.
So Uros Plavsic picked him up and delivered him to teammates waiting to douse him with water.
It was a fitting payback considering Nkamhoua had carried the Volunteers much of the afternoon.
Nkamhoua tied his career high with 27 points, including 13 straight for Tennessee during a decisive stretch in the second half, and the fourth-seeded Volunteers bullied Duke 65-52 on Saturday to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019.
“We’re a tough, hard-nosed team,” Nkamhoua said. “That’s how we play everybody. But knowing they had a lot of freshmen, we knew that if we come in and apply more pressure and be tough and physical, then they would have to deal with it.
“What we were saying before the game is we were going to bring them into the mud with us and make them play a tough, hard-nosed game and see if they were ready for it.”
They weren’t, and Tennessee’s experience — the Vols start four seniors — proved too much for Duke’s highly touted freshmen.
Santiago Vescovi added 14 points and five assists for Tennessee (25-10), which ended Duke’s 10-game winning streak and sent first-year coach Jon Scheyer — charged with replacing Mike Krzyzewski — home after just two NCAA Tournament games. Not sure Coach K could have done anything different to combat these Vols, who used a level of “bully ball” to send the fifth-seeded Blue Devils (27-9) packing.
“We feel we’re at our best when we can do that,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said.
Midwest Region Houston 81, Auburn 64:
Marcus Sasser looked just fine, scoring 22 points, and top-seeded Houston stifled local favorite Auburn in the second half for the victory.
The Cougars (33-3) overcame a 10-point halftime deficit, returning after the break with a chip on their shoulders.
Dylan Disu had a season-high 28 points on 14-for-20 shooting, steadying Texas down the stretch after a late Penn State surge and leading the Longhorns to their first regional in 15 years with a victory on Saturday night.
The second-seeded Longhorns (28-8) made just one of 13 shots from 3-point land, so Disu turned this one into a mid-range game. He went 5 for 5 over the final 4 ½ minutes and grabbed 10 rebounds for good measure.
Texas 71, Penn State 66: South Region Princeton 78, Missouri 63:
Blake Peters made five 3-pointers in the second half and Princeton shocked another power conference team to reach the NCAA Tournament regional semifinals for the first time in 56 years by beating Missouri on Saturday.
The No. 15 seeded Princeton (23-8) followed up a first-round win over Pac-12 tournament champion Arizona by dominating 10th seeded Missouri (25-10) of the SEC from the start.
San Diego State 75, Furman 52:
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 and pulling away for a win on Saturday.
Darrion Trammell had 13 points, Lamont Butler added 12 and leading scorer Matt Bradley finished with 10 for San Diego State, which is heading to its first Sweet 16 since 2004.