With out Jamal Shead, top-ranked Houston simply couldn’t get previous Duke on Friday evening.
The Blue Devils, after Shead went down with a severely-sprained ankle within the first part, jumped forward and hung on within the ultimate seconds to take hold of a 54-51 win of their Candy 16 matchup on the American Airways Middle in Dallas. That despatched Duke to its moment Elite 8 in 3 seasons, and the primary below second-year head trainer Jon Scheyer.
Remarkably, it additionally marked Duke’s first NCAA event win over a better seed in 30 years.
Cougars fight after dropping Jamal Shead
Shead drove to the rim a couple of mins after the halfway level of the primary part, however his proper ankle rolled laborious as he planted to stand up for the layup. That despatched him crashing all the way down to the court docket laborious, the place he stayed for rather a while in a large number of ache.
He ultimately attempted to stroll off the court docket below his personal energy, however running shoes then helped him the remainder of tips on how to the locker room.
Shead used to be proven on CBS using a scooter to get an X-ray at halftime, which got here again unfavourable. That left him with a severely-sprained ankle. Whilst the Cougars didn’t rule him out in the second one part, he didn’t go back to the sport. He completed with two issues and 3 assists, and went simply 1-of-5 from the ground.
Shead averaged a career-high 13.2 issues and six.4 assists this season for the Cougars, who gained the common season within the Large 12 after becoming a member of the convention simply months previous. They claimed a peak seed within the NCAA event, and beat each Longwood and Texas A&M to achieve the Candy 16. Shead has averaged 16 issues and 9.5 assists consistent with sport within the event.
Whilst Houston were given off to an excessively rapid get started on Friday evening — they jumped out to a 6-0 lead and compelled Duke head trainer Jon Scheyer to name a timeout now not even two mins into the sport ahead of rolling to a 10-3 get started — Duke slowly chipped away on the result in shut out the part. The Blue Devils held Houston scoreless for a just about six minute stretch at one level, and so they outscored the Cougars 13-6 after Shead left the sport whilst Houston neglected 9 of its remaining 11 photographs of the primary part.
Duke took a 23-22 lead into halftime after Houston’s L.J. Cryer made a layup on the buzzer, which marked the Cougars’ simplest issues within the remaining 4 mins of the length.
Houston didn’t pass away in the second one part. The primary time Duke attempted to drag away close to the halfway level, Ramon Walker drilled an enormous contested 3-pointer to chop the sport again to a unmarried ownership. J’Wan Roberts then sank a difficult left-handed layup within the paint to chop it to only one level.
However that used to be as shut because the Cougars were given. Duke close them down offensively as soon as once more. They went greater than 3 mins with out scoring after L.J. Cryer hit a jumper on the 4:25 mark of the second one part, and Jeremy Roach spoke back with an enormous fadeaway jumper from the loose throw line to place the Blue Devils again up via six issues with simply 73 seconds left.
From there, they hung on and made one remaining giant forestall to sneak out with a three-point win.
Cryer led the Cougars with 15 issues whilst capturing 7-of-14 from the sphere within the loss. Roberts added 13 issues and 8 rebounds. They had been the one Houston avid gamers to hit double figures. The Cougars shot simply 2-of-8 from at the back of the arc, too.
Filipowski led Duke with 16 issues and 9 rebounds on Friday evening. Roach added 14 issues, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. Duke went simply 6-of-17 from at the back of the arc as a workforce, part of which belonged to Filipowski.
The Blue Devils will now tackle NC State in what is going to be an all-ACC Elite 8. The Wolfpack beat No. 2 Marquette of their Candy 16 matchup previous on Friday evening, which marked their 8th immediately removing win courting again to the ACC event.