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BOX SCORE
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Duke's been down this road before.
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Sat, March 24
With Saturday's win over USC, the Blue Devils are going to the Final Four for the ninth time in 16 years. What an achievement!
The Blue Devils had to fight hard to earn this one. Once again, it was the 1-2 punch of Jason Williams and Shane Battier coming through. They combined for 58 points against UCLA in the regional semifinal and 48 against an athletic and talented USC squad.
Williams had 28 big ones to go with his 34 against UCLA. He struggled at one point, missing 10 straight shots from the floor. But he kept working at it, finally hitting a big trifecta and several driving layups.
Other keys for Duke included solid free throw shooting (14 of 15) and Diaper Dandy Chris Duhon's pair of trifectas in crunch time. Those threes shut off USC's momentum. The Blue Devils were competitive on the boards against the big Trojan front-line of Sam Clancy, David Bluthenthal and Brian Scalabrine.
Next up is Duke-Maryland IV...let's hope it is as good as the first three matchups were!
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Jason Williams scored 28 points and Shane Battier added 20
points and 10 rebounds as Duke beat Southern California 79-69
Saturday night to advance to its 13th Final Four and ninth under
coach Mike Krzyzewski.
When the final buzzer sounded, Battier ran and hugged freshman
Chris Duhon.
"Chris was the closest guy around so I grabbed him because I
was looking for anyone to hug at that point," said Battier, a
senior making his second trip to a Final Four. "It's something in
my old age I've come to appreciate on the last time around."
The opponent next weekend in Minneapolis will be very familiar –
the Blue Devils will face Maryland for the fourth time this season.
The Atlantic Coast Conference schools both won regional finals over
teams from the Pac-10, with the Terrapins beating Stanford 87-73 in
the West.
Duke (33-4) won two of the three games against Maryland, but
each win was by two points, while Maryland's victory was by 11.
It will be the second straight year teams from the same
conference meet in the semifinals. Michigan State and Wisconsin of
the Big Ten did it in 2000.
"I'm very happy for our conference and for Gary (Williams) and
his staff," Krzyzewski said, referring to the Terrapins coach
who's making his first appearance in a Final Four. "Two teams in
the Final Four from our conference, that's absolutely terrific."
The Blue Devils are 9-1 in regional finals under Krzyzewski and
the latest win has them back in the Final Four for the second time
in three years.
|  | | Jason Williams follows up his 34-point performance Thursday by dropping 28 on USC. |
Their last national championship came in 1992 and it was on the
same trip as this year's run – the first and second rounds in
Greensboro, N.C., the regionals in Philadelphia and the Final Four
in Minneapolis.
"Regional championship games, I always felt, are the toughest
games to win," Krzyzewski said. "You've reached the promised land
and once you're there you have a chance to get the ultimate prize.
"I've always been fortunate in those games. Big players have
stepped up. Tonight, really, a freshman stepped up, not that Shane
and Jason weren't terrific, but to see Chris Duhon drive us to a
Final Four was very gratifying for me."
Duhon finished with 13 points.
The Trojans (24-10) were looking for their third Final Four
berth and first since 1954.
Duke's two All-Americans, Battier and the sophomore guard
Williams, ended those dreams with two more great performances in
the NCAA Tournament.
Battier had at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in each of the
four games, while Williams' 28 points against Southern Cal was one
off his average over the first three games.
Battier and Williams combined for all but 10 of Duke's 43
first-half points as the Blue Devils took a five-point lead.
Then each time the Trojans seemed ready to make a run, the Blue
Devils had an answer.
Three times Southern Cal was within seven points. The last two
times Williams scored to put Duke back up by at least nine.
The final killer for the Trojans came from Duhon.
Sam Clancy, who led Southern California with 19 points, hit a
turnaround with 5:47 left to make it 67-59. Battier missed a shot
on the next possession but Duke kept the ball when a foul was
called.
After taking the inbounds pass, Duhon hit a 3-pointer from in
front of the Duke bench to make it 70-59 with 5:17 to play. The
Trojans were never closer than eight points the rest of the way and
Duhon added another 3 with 2:59 to play as the shot clock was
winding down.
"The guy who was guarding me kept leaving me and it was like,
`I dare you to shoot,"' Duhon said. "Once I hit that first one I
had a lot of confidence flowing through my blood and my teammates
kept kicking them to me and I kept letting them go."
Battier had confidence in his teammate.
"By no stretch of the imagination is this a two-man team," he
said. "Tonight they wanted to leave Chris open and Chris showed
why he's a spectacular player."
Southern California coach Henry Bibby admitted leaving Duhon
open was part of the game plan.
"We thought they had two players who could beat you. We played
the percentages," he said. "Duhon's a good player on the number
one team. He should make some buckets.
"I'm very proud of these guys. All along I said when we had
three or four players playing we could play with anyone in the
country."
Duke started the game by hitting 10 of its first 15 shots, but
Southern California's matchup zone had a lot more success in the
second half.
The Blue Devils missed 17 of their first 24 shots in the final
20 minutes, but it seemed Williams or Battier came up with a big
play to offset the shooting slump.
Mike Dunleavy added 11 points for Duke. David Bluthenthal had 17
points and 13 rebounds for the Trojans, while Brian Scalabrine
added 13 points.
Duke's biggest lead of the first half came at 32-20 when
Dunleavy hit a 3-pointer with 7:50 to play, the Blue Devils' last
field goal for 5:10.
A layup by Duhon ended the drought and made it 40-30, but
Scalabrine hit consecutive 3s for the Trojans to make it 40-36 with
1:08 left. Duke got the lead back to 43-36, but Desmon Farmer's
drive with 23 seconds left brought Southern California within five
points at halftime.
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ALSO SEE
Men's College Basketball Scoreboard
USC Clubhouse
Duke Clubhouse
USC's Bibby ready to shop services nationwide
Katz: Battier back for one Final act
Maryland drops Stanford, gives Gary Williams first Final Four appearance
Full-Court Press
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Mike Krzyzewski is happy to be playing ACC rival Maryland in the Final Four.(Courtesy: NCAA Productions)
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Coach Henry Bibby admits USC's strategy against Duke backfired (Courtesy: NCAA Productions).
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
USC dared Chris Duhon to shoot, so the freshman did (Courtesy: NCAA Productions).
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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