Jeremy Roach’s strong second-half performance on Friday night gives him and his Duke teammates another game against Atlantic Coast Conference rival North Carolina State.
Earlier this month, few observers would have thought the Wolfpack would be anyone’s opponent with a Final Four spot on the line.
Roach scored all of his 14 points in the second half while playing with a dislocated left pinkie finger to help fourth-seeded Duke earn a spot in the Elite Eight with a 54-51 victory over top-seeded Houston in South Region play at Dallas.
Kyle Filipowski also excelled by scoring 16 points and grabbing nine rebounds for the Blue Devils (27-8).
Houston played the final 26 1/2 minutes without All-American Jamal Shead (sprained right ankle). LJ Cryer scored 15 points and J’Wan Roberts added 13 points and eight rebounds for the Cougars (32-5).
Roach hit a key shot with 1:15 remaining to give Duke a 54-48 lead. The Blue Devils eventually prevailed when Houston’s Emanuel Sharp missed a 3-point attempt with just under four seconds remaining.
Now Duke faces No. 11 seed NC State, which has produced eight straight victories to earn its first trip to the Elite Eight since 1986. The Wolfpack (25-14) advanced with a 67-58 victory over second-seeded Marquette.
NC State lost four straight games to end the regular season before winning five games in five days to capture the ACC tournament title and claim a spot in the NCAA Tournament. One of the victims was Duke, as the Wolfpack recorded a 74-69 victory in the quarterfinals of the tourney.
“It’s going to be crazy. A rematch of the ACC tournament,” Roach said. “Obviously, they’ve done a hell of a job. They’ve won eight straight and are on a crazy run.
“But we just have to lock in on Sunday and we’ll be fine. We know they’re tough.”
Visiting Duke won the teams’ lone regular-season meeting 79-64 on March 4 at Raleigh, N.C.
Houston certainly experienced misfortune with the injury to Shead. He was hurt while planting on the ankle on a layup attempt with 6:53 remaining in the first half. Sampson said afterward that Shead sustained a Grade 4 sprain that would have sidelined him four to six weeks.
Sampson said there was no way to make up for the loss of Shead, who watched from the bench in the second half.
“He’s a first-team All-American, he’s the Big 12 Player of the Year, he was the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year,” Sampson said. “He’s the heart and soul of this team.
“I doubt any team in America has any player — maybe (Zach) Edey of Purdue — that means as much to their team as Jamal means for this team. There is not another Jamal.”
The Cougars led 16-10 when Shead departed and Duke immediately went on a 13-4 run.
This was the fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament in which the Cougars reached the Sweet 16. The stretch includes a Final Four appearance in 2021 and an Elite Eight trip in 2022.
“Houston is not going anywhere,” Sampson said. “We’re gonna still be good. The freshness of (Shead’s) pain is so raw right now. Losing the way we did, giving ourselves a chance, holding that team to 54 points and battling the way we did.”
Instead, it is Duke advancing to the Elite Eight at a time when there are few teams hotter than NC State. Or teams with a bigger chip on their shoulder.
“We’re going to keep that going. We get a lot of disrespect,” Wolfpack big man DJ Burns Jr. said. “People still don’t think we’re supposed to be here or that we’re going to go further. We’re going to keep trying to crash the party.”
–Field Level Media
