DALLAS — Another No. 1 seed is gone.
Kyle Filipowski registered 16 points and 9 rebounds and Jeremy Roach scored all of his 14 points in the second half to help the Duke Blue Devils down the top-seeded Houston Cougars 54-51 on Friday night in the South Region semifinal.
Duke (27-8) advances to Sunday, setting up a Tobacco Road showdown in Dallas with Atlantic Coast Conference rival North Carolina State for a spot in the Final Four.
The Blue Devils will be making its 24th Elite Eight appearance, matching Kansas for the third-most times getting that far in March Madness — trailing just Kentucky (38) and North Carolina (29).
The bigger story of the night was Duke playing the final 26 minutes without All-American point guard Jamal Shead, who left the game with a right ankle injury. And even with Shead on the bench, the Blue Devils overcame a physical Houston defense, despite scoring a season-low point total.
“Any questions about their mental toughness or their heart, I think they answered those tonight,” second-year coach Jon Scheyer said.
Shead turned his right foot awkwardly on a drive after missing a contested layup and left the game with 6:38 remaining in the first half. He returned to the bench in the second half and limped off the court after Houston (32-5) became the second No. 1 seed knocked out.
Duke trailed 16-10 when Shead left, and didn't lead until Tyrese Proctor sank two foul shots to make it 21-20 with 2:46 left before halftime. From that point on, the Blue Devils never trailed again.
The Blue Devils never led by more than six points, then Houston cut it to 54-51 on a three-point play by Emanuel Sharp with 48 seconds remaining.
After a Filipowski miss on the other end, the Cougars got the ball back one more time with 25 seconds left. But Sharp missed a contested 3-pointer over Proctor that would've tied the game.
L.J. Cryer scored 15 points for Houston and J'Wan Roberts had 13.
North Carolina State 67, Marquette 58
DALLAS — For the first time since 1986, the North Carolina State Wolfpack will be in the Elite Eight.
DJ Horne scored 19 and the Wolfpack kept its Cinderella-run alive, defeating the No. 2 seeded Marquette Golden Eagles 67-58 on Friday night in the South Region semifinal.
Casey Morsell added 15 points and Mohamed Diarra had 11 points and 15 rebounds for the Wolfpack.
The 11th-seeded Wolfpack (25-14) will now face the No. 4 seed Duke Blue Devils in an ACC showdown for a chance to go to the Final Four.
Marquette (27-10) couldn't overcome a poor shooting performance, going 4 of 31 from beyond the arc and shooting 33.3% overall from the field.
“Our mentality is even if we have a tough shooting night, find a way to win anyway,” coach Shaka Smart said. “And we weren’t quite good enough on the defensive end to get that done with the shooting night that we had.”
Marquette fell behind by as many as 16, but managed to get within eight when Jones missed an open 3-pointer with six minutes remaining. But they couldn’t get closer than six the rest of the way.
Horne buried 3-pointers to shut down two short runs by Marquette, blowing a kiss to the Golden Eagles fans behind their team’s bench after the first one and gesturing toward the N.C. State section after the second.
Kam Jones scored 20 points and point guard Tyler Kolek had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Golden Eagles, as a Big East team lost for the first time in eight games in this tournament.
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