Kansas upends Clemson to advance to 3rd straight Elite Eight

OMAHA, Neb. — Kansas, for the third straight season, is one win from advancing to the Final Four.

The Jayhawks, the top-seeded team in the NCAA Tournament’s Midwest Regional, downed No. 5 seed Clemson, 80-76, in a Sweet 16 battle on Friday night at CenturyLink Center.

The victory, which looked like it was going to be easy (KU led by 20 early in the second half), turned out to be difficult as the Tigers cut the gap to six points with 2:27 left and four with 14.5 to play.

The Jayhawks’ win sets up an Elite Eight contest on Sunday against another ACC team — either Syracuse or Duke, who played later Friday night — with the winner advancing to the Final Four a week from Saturday in San Antonio.

KU (30-7), which has fallen short the past two seasons, losing to Villanova and Oregon as the No. 1 seed in consecutive Elite Eight contests, got 14 points and 11 rebounds in 25 foulplagued minutes from a seemingly healthy Udoka Azubuike.

Malik Newman scored 17, Devonte Graham had 16 (with four assists, five rebounds and four fouls) and Lagerald Vick added 13. Svi Mykhailiuk contributed nine points and Silvio De Sousa scored nine to go with six rebounds.

Graham played just 34 minutes because of foul trouble as KU improved to 13-2 against ACC teams in the 15year Bill Self era. KU is 1-0 versus Clemson, 4-7 against Duke and 3-3 versus Syracuse.

Gabe DeVoe scored 31 points and had nine rebounds, Marcquise Reed had 13 points and Shelton Mitchell 12 for Clemson (25-10), which had routed Auburn by 31 points in last week’s second round. DeVoe also had five turnovers for the Tigers.