March Madness: Duke fends off Vermont 64-47, joins NC State and UNC in the second round
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- The most exciting two days of college basketball are finally upon us. The NCAA tournament Round of 64 begins with North Carolina and North Carolina State on the docket Thursday and Duke playing Friday.
Duke
The Blue Devils entered the NCAA tournament on a two-game losing streak but shook the doldrums with a steady performance against feisty Vermont to win 64-47 on Friday night.
The Blue Devils had dropped their previous two games against rivals North Carolina and North Carolina State. Worse for the Blue Devils is the fact that no college team has ever lost its first game of a conference tournament and then won a national championship.
But the Blue Devils are looking to erase that history. And it started with a balanced effort against a gritty underdog.
Oddly enough, four Duke starters were in double figures. The lone exception was Kyle Filipowski, who had only 3 points, all on free throws. He missed his only field-goal attempt, but he did grab 12 rebounds.
Mark Mitchell and Jared McCain led the way with 15 each. Point guard Jeremy Roach had 14 points and Tyrese Proctor added 13.
No. 4 seed Duke (25-8) led 34-29 at halftime and stymied every charge by the Catamounts ( 28-7) to win in relatively comfortable fashion.
It was the fifth meeting between the two schools. Duke has won all five.
Seeking its sixth national championship, Duke will face No. 5 seed Wisconsin or 12th-seeded James Madison in a South Region second-round game Sunday in Brooklyn.
Shamir Bogues had 18 points for Vermont, playing in its third consecutive NCAA tournament as America East champions. Aaron Deloney added 14 for the Catamounts, who had won 10 straight games.
The Blue Devils had trouble putting away Vermont until late in the game. Duke outscored the Catamounts 20-2 at the free-throw line and 10-0 in points off turnovers.
Even in New York City, where Duke has a large alumni network and fan base, the pesky Catamounts had the crowd chanting "UVM! UVM!" when they cut their deficit to two early in the second half.
McCain answered with a 3-pointer, and Duke finally started to establish some sustained breathing room midway through the second half.
A hush fell over the crowd with 1:18 left when Vermont's leading scorer, TJ Long, went down with a serious-looking injury. Long was about to go up for a breakaway layup when his right knee buckled and he dropped to the floor. After receiving attention from an athletic trainer, he was helped off the court to applause.
Duke played without Caleb Foster again after coach Jon Scheyer said Thursday that the freshman guard will sit out the remainder of the season with a stress fracture in his right ankle.
The team had hoped Foster (7.7 points per game) could return during the NCAA tournament, but he missed his sixth consecutive game. Foster saw multiple doctors and even tried to practice this week, but Scheyer said Foster "wasn't able to be himself."
Duke went on an 8-0 spree in the first half and it appeared the Blue Devils were poised to break it open when they established a 10-point cushion.
But the Catamounts answered and cut it to 34-29 at halftime. Long and Deloney each tossed in a circus bucket to beat the shot clock, after Vermont coach John Becker received a technical foul earlier in the half for yelling at an official.
NC State
Some felt NC State wasn't supposed to be here. The Wolfpack proved they belonged.
NC State (23-14) used a strong night from its frontcourt to take control in the second half and subdue No. 6 seed Texas Tech 80-67 on Thursday night.
Ben Middlebrooks scored a career-high 21 points, Mo Diarra added 17 points and 12 rebounds, and DJ Burns Jr. chipped in with 16 points as the Wolfpack frontcourt feasted on the Red Raiders.
DJ Horne also tossed in 16 points as the Wolfpack shot nearly 51% from the floor to Texas Tech's 38.7% shooting.
It was the Wolfpack's first NCAA tournament win in nine years and the first under head coach Kevin Keatts.
Joe Toussaint led the Red Raiders with 16 points, but Texas Tech made just 7-of-31 3-pointers and couldn't keep pace in the second half.
NC State broke the game open with a 13-2 surge midway through the second half, highlighted by a pretty bounce pass from Michael O'Connell that turned into a dunk by Diarra and a soft running hook shot by Burns that made it 65-51.
The sixth-seeded Red Raiders (23-11) had relied on defense to reach the tournament in coach Grant McCasland's first season. Texas Tech came in 18-0 when holding opponents under 70 points and just 5-10 when teams reach that threshold.
N.C. State hit the 70-point mark on a layup by Middlebrooks with 4:06 to go.
It's been a remarkable turnaround in the past 10 days for N.C. State, which entered the ACC Tournament as the 10th seed and was dealing with questions about coach Kevin Keatts' future. The Wolfpack responded by beating rivals Duke, Virginia and North Carolina, the last in a decisive victory in the title game.
Keatts admitted he was worried about how his team would respond emotionally against an opponent it barely knows. Turns out N.C. State was just fine thanks to Middlebrooks, a transfer from Clemson who has been a key reserve but rarely the focal point.
WATCH | NC State's big win
That changed against the Red Raiders. The 6-10 Middlebrooks tied his career high of 14 points set in January against Wake Forest in the first half. He kept going in the second. And when Burns - who plays a throwback under-the-rim game - got going after halftime, Texas Tech was scrambling to keep up.
It couldn't, sending N.C. State to the second round for the first time since 2015, when the Wolfpack won two games in Pittsburgh to reach the Sweet 16. Another chance awaits this weekend against Horizon League champion Oakland. The Golden Grizzlies (24-11) stunned No. 3 Kentucky (23-10) 80-76. The results ensure that a double-digit seed will reach the Sweet 16.
"Everybody's got confidence now. Everybody," Diarra said.
UNC
North Carolina was the first of the Triangle schools to take the court in this year's tournament, beating Wagner 90-62 in Charlotte.
The West Region No. 1 seed Tar Heels (28-7) came out sloppy in the first half, committing six turnovers that Wagner (17-16) converted into nine points.
Hubert Davis' team steadied the ship quickly and started to use its size advantage against the Seahawks -- finishing the first half with a 24-12 advantage on points in the paint.
UNC led Wagner 40-28 at halftime and steadily pulled away.
Armando Bacot had 20 points and 15 rebounds, and North Carolina never trailed.
Jae'Lyn Withers had a season-high 16 points and matched his best rebounding work with 10 boards for the West Region's headliner. That helped the Tar Heels finish the game shooting 55% while dominating up front against a short-handed upstart aiming to pull off only the third opening-round takedown of a 1-seed in March Madness history.
"I think he did set the tone," Davis said, and he added: "J-Wit, his energy and effort on both ends of the floor really ignited us and got us the lead going into halftime. He came off the bench and his production was real."
RJ Davis, named this week as a first-team All-American by The Associated Press, had 17 of his 22 points after halftime for the Tar Heels.
UNC also played with the backing of a blue-clad crowd about 2 1/2 hours from its Chapel Hill campus. And the Tar Heels will have that again for the next step: a marquee matchup with Michigan State (20-14) and Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo on Saturday. It's a rematch of the 2009 national championship game. The Tar Heels won that game, to give head coach Roy Williams his second national title.
The Tar Heels dominated this one inside, finishing with 48 points in the paint and a 43-24 rebounding advantage to go with 17 second-chance points.
Withers had scored in double figures only three times all year, the last time coming against his former Louisville program on Jan. 17.
"(Davis) typically challenges us before the game and sometimes at half, saying, 'It doesn't need to be only an Armando Bacot rebounding game or a Harrison Ingram rebounding game,'" Withers said.
Melvin Council Jr. and Julian Brown each scored 18 points for the Seahawks, who won their first-ever NCAA game by holding off Howard in the First Four on Tuesday night. Wagner shot 39.7% for the game.
"I was happy for them to be able to compete in this, and I was really proud the way they competed," Seahawks coach Donald Copeland said. "Obviously what we've gone through all year isn't ideal, but we expected to play well. We expected to win the game. Obviously, we didn't. But I'm glad the way we played."
UNC had the clear edge inside against a team with only seven available scholarship players and only one - 6-foot-9, 255-pound Keyontae Lewis - offering any notable size. By halftime, the 6-10 Bacot had a double-double after getting multiple deep-block touches while the 6-9 Withers showed plenty of energy in the paint by tallying his first double-digit scoring output since Jan. 17.
The Tar Heels gradually stretched that lead out after the break. That included Davis and Harrison Ingram hitting back-to-back 3-pointers, followed shortly by an alley-oop dunk in transition from Elliot Cadeau to a high-flying Withers for a 70-50 lead with 8:33 left.
The Tar Heels got another comfortable setting to start the tournament. They improved to 35-2 in NCAA games in their home state, including 13-1 in Charlotte. Notably, the lone loss came in their last tournament game here: a second-round loss as a 2-seed to Texas A&M.
Looking ahead, Izzo's Spartans have lost all four meetings with UNC in the NCAA tournament. The time of the game and the channel on which it will air have not yet been announced.
Back in Chapel Hill, Maggie Casey was celebrating her 17th birthday this weekend, and a UNC victory was just what she wanted to start the party. She and her friends cheered on the Heels from Top of the Hill on Franklin Street.
"I'm thrilled for everything. Go Heels all day," she said.
Look at the full 2024 Men's NCAA Bracket
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The Associated Press contributed.
