Olivier Nkamhoua tied his profession excessive with 27 factors, together with 13 straight for Tennessee throughout a decisive span within the second half, and the fourth-seeded Volunteers beat Duke 65-52 on Saturday to advance to the Candy 16 for the primary time since 2019.
Tennessee (25-10) ended Duke’s 10-game successful streak and despatched first-year coach Jon Scheyer, charged with changing Mike Krzyzewski, house after simply two NCAA Match video games. Undecided Coach Ok might have achieved any totally different to fight these Vols, who used a model of “bully ball” to ship the fifth-seeded Blue Devils (27-9) packing.
Nkamhoua put an exclamation mark on Tennessee’s victory with an emphatic slam with 1:15 remaining. It prompted Vols followers to start out chanting and despatched many Duke followers towards the exits.
Tennessee superior to face Florida Atlantic or Fairleigh Dickinson on Thursday at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York Metropolis.
Duke didn’t deal with Tennessee’s bodily fashion very effectively all afternoon. The Volunteers set the tone early, clearly desirous to push round Kyle Filipowski and get arms within the faces of guards Jeremy Roach and Tyrese Proctor.
Vols huge man Uros Plavsic picked up two offensive fouls within the first 4 minutes, each going in opposition to Filipowski. Duke’s 7-footer later took an elbow to his face and ended up with a small lower beneath his left eye.
Proctor struggled to inbound the ball a number of occasions, getting a five-second name, turning it over as soon as and practically giving it up once more. Roach had much more points, ending the primary half with three fouls and 4 turnovers.
The Vols, in the meantime, took significantly better care of the ball than they did of their first-round victory in opposition to Louisiana-Lafayette. They turned it over simply 9 occasions, their fewest since level guard Zakai Zeigler sustained a season-ending knee harm final month.
Proctor led Duke with 16 factors. Roach and Filipowski chipped in 13 apiece.