VOLUNTEERS PUT DUKE ON OUTSIDE

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, hardnosed 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 firstyear coach Jon Scheyer — charged with replacing Mike Krzyzewski — home after just two NCAA Tournament games. Coach K probably couldn’t have done anything different to combat these Vols, who used a level of “bully ball” to send the fifthseeded Blue Devils (27-9) packing.

“We feel we’re at our best when we can do that,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said.

Nkamhoua made 10 of 13 shots and put an exclamation mark on Tennessee’s victory with an emphatic slam with 1:15 remaining. It prompted Vols fans to start chanting and sent Duke fans scrambling for the exits.