The Pac-12 Conference champs used their wide-and-tall athleticism and well-timed 3-pointers to put away the defending national champs, 82-68, in an NCAA West Region semifinal at Honda Center. OR is on the brink of its first Final Four since the Final Four began – way back in 1939. Cook added 16 points and nine rebounds and Jordan Bell 13 points to go with seven rebounds and four blocked shots as the Ducks (31-6) played a steady rhythm of dunk-layup-3, or some variation of that, atop the fourth-seeded Blue Demons (25-11) all night.
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The Ducks will face second-seeded Oklahoma, a 77-63 victor over third-seeded Texas A&M in the earlier semifinal, in the regional final Saturday. If it was his final game for Coach K, it was a pretty lousy one: Allen scored 15 points on 4-of-13 shooting, and OR handled the defending champs with relative ease.
Duke point guard Grayson Allen – himself not immune to controversy – was the first Blue Devil to indirectly show his displeasure with Brooks by refusing to shake his hand as the buzzer sounded.
“I didn’t say that”, Krzyzewski said flatly. 492 overall and going 6-of-12 from three-point range themselves in the second half. “I think we played one of our best games this year”.
Duke and OR traded blows in the first half like one might expect from a heavyweight fight between a No. 1 seed and a team with the moxie of Duke. Rams running back and Duke basketball fan Todd Gurley also attended the game. “I said, ‘You’re a terrific player.’ And you can take whatever he said and go with it, all right?”
And all of that probably played a role in him ignoring OR star Dillon Brooks at the end of the game. “Every time I had a chance to peek this way, to see if he was looking at me”, said OR sophomore Jordan Bell from Long Beach, Calif. “Once I saw him I said ‘I gotta score.’ He’s a scorer, I gotta score.'”… “I mean, they still battled at the end”. “They can beat us if they make a lot of threes”.
While Brooks probably didn’t have to either attempt that last 3-pointer or celebrate as vociferously after he hit it, he deserves some benefit of the doubt under the circumstances.
Brooks finished with 22 points, six assists, five rebounds and a ticket to Saturday’s Elite Eight against Oklahoma.
Oregon: Casey Benson hit three 3-pointers and scored 11 points.
“I’ve got to respect Duke”, Brooks later admitted, according to Josh Peter of USA Today Sports.
“That’s even better”, Hield said. “They won the game”.
OR shot 49.2 percent from the field, while limiting Duke to 44.1 percent shooting from the floor. “I’m anxious about finishing up school and being with my guys”.
Ernie Kent took OR to the Elite Eight twice. Tonny Trocha-Morelos made a layup to pull them to 24-20 with 9:32 to go before halftime. They did a great job of that.
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Sheldon McClellan scored 26 points for Miami, and Angel Rodriguez added 13.
