Cameron Boozer shook off a quiet first half to finish with 19 points and No. 1 overall seed Duke shot 61.5% after halftime Saturday to pull away from TCU for an 81-58 win in a physical second-round game at the NCAA Tournament.
The freshman voted a unanimous first-team Associated Press All-American earlier this week had just two points and missed his only shot in the first half. However, he scored three times during the 11-0 second-half burst — twice on high-low feeds from fellow big Patrick Ngongba II in his return to the lineup — as Duke (34-2) finally shook free of the ninth-seeded Horned Frogs (23-12).
That 11-0 run was the capper on a 26-6 surge that spanned nearly nine minutes, with TCU missing 15 of 17 shots after Jayden Pierre’s layup tied it at 44-all with 13:56 left.
The Blue Devils opened the tournament with an uncharacteristically shaky performance that had them flirting with only the third 16-versus-1 upset against Siena. This time, they trailed only briefly in the second half on the way to the Sweet 16 for the third straight season under Jon Scheyer, earning a trip to the nation’s capital to face the St. John’s-Kansas winner Friday.
Micah Robinson scored 18 points for TCU, which beat eighth-seeded Ohio State on Xavier Edmonds’ basket in the final seconds of the first round. But the Horned Frogs couldn’t sustain a quality first 25 minutes against the Blue Devils, shooting just 10 for 38 after halftime and 33.3% for the game.
The game also had some chippy and testy vibes. TCU’s David Punch took an elbow from Boozer on a drive and came up with a bloody nose that resulted in a flagrant-foul call on review, and there was a double-flagrant foul when Ngongba and Edmonds ended up tangled and fell to the floor.
Coach Jamie Dixon also got a technical foul in the second half for complaining in frustration after there was no goaltending call on a block from behind by Maliq Brown.
TCU was playing in its fourth tournament in five years under Dixon, but the Horned Frogs fell short of a chance to reach the second weekend of the tournament for the first time in the modern era since expansion to 64 teams in 1985.
The Blue Devils will face a Hall of Fame coach and national title winner in the regional semifinals. The fourth-seeded Jayhawks, led by Bill Self, meet the fifth-seeded Red Storm led by Rick Pitino on Sunday.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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