Duke never, ever walks out on the floor for a basketball game and counts on its reputation to do the work. The Blue Devils stand in to take a charge, hustle for loose balls and fight for space on defense.
Illinois, which wanted to start building its own reputation as a top-drawer program, found out first hand what it takes Friday night in an NCAA regional semifinal at the Georgia Dome.
Duke won the game 72-62 by imposing a staunch defense on an Illini squad known for running up the score on previous opponents.
PHOTO: AP
The Blue Devils, the top-seeded team in the Atlanta regional, advanced to the regional final to play seventh-seeded Xavier, a 79-71 winner over No. 3 Texas. Duke will be trying to advance to the Final Four for the 14th time, the 10th time under Coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Illinois, which was seeded fifth in the region, finished 26-7. The Illini arrived here with 14 victories in their last 15 games, mostly because of sensational guard play from Dee Brown, Luther Head and Deron Williams.
But while Illinois tried to win with its guards shooting jump shots, Duke had more variety on offense with outside shooting and inside muscle.
PHOTO: AP
Duke shot 61.5 percent in second half, making 16 of 26 shots from the floor.
When Illinois tried to cover the 3-point shooting of J.J. Redick and Daniel Ewing, the Blue Devils fed the ball inside to forwards Shelden Williams and Luol Deng.
Deng finished with 18 points and Williams added 14. Redick had 17. Point guard Chris Duhon, who was playing with sore ribs, took only one shot, but he handed out 8 assists and snared a game-high 10 rebounds.
knock-around ball
"It was tough," Duhon said, "especially playing a team like Illinois. They play real physical, and you have to get around a lot of screens. You take a lot of contact, but I wanted to be out there, leading my team, and I'm not going to let a set of bruised ribs stop me."
Ewing had some simple but deep praise for his injured teammate.
"Without him," Ewing said, "we probably don't win."
Deng and Williams did a good job inside on the Illinois post players Roger Powell and James Augustine. The Illini guards spread the floor looking for 3-pointers, leaving Deng, Williams and the reserve Shavlick Randolph isolated on the post.
Illinois could manage just 13 three-point shots. Deron Williams, who had 31 points in a second-round victory over Cincinnati, scored just 7 points against Duke. Powell and Augustine led Illinois with 15 points each.
solid track record
The Blue Devils won their 80th NCAA tournament game, which ranks third all time.
"Tonight, we took a big step," Ewing said. "The past couple of years, this has been the ending point of our season, when we lost in the Sweet 16. Today we got over the hump."
Duke led by 31-30 at the half, but the lead could have been bigger with some smarter play.
The Blue Devils attacked the basket in the first seven minutes of the game, throwing the ball inside to Deng and Williams. They succeeded in drawing fouls and getting into the one-and-one bonus with 13 minutes 9 seconds remaining in the first half.
But Duke stopped being aggressive and started shooting more jump shots. It had a chance to score some points from the free-throw line, but it was not going to get to the line by launching 3-pointers.
The other key to the first half was Deron Williams' only basket. The Illinois guard missed his first four shots before hitting a 3-pointer with 5:41 to play in the first half. Duke was starting to build momentum and led by 24-17, but Williams' 3-pointer gave the Illini energy.
Illinois took a 30-29 lead on a jump shot by Roger Powell with 1:03 remaining in the first half.
But Duke's Shelden Williams hit a short jumper with 47 seconds to play to give the Blue Devils a 31-30 lead at the intermission.
Xavier 79, Texas 71
Romain Sato of the Central African Republic scored 27 points and while teammate Lionel Chalmers added another 14 points on Friday to help the Xavier Musketeers beat Texas 79-71 in the semifinals of the Atlanta Regional.
No. 7 seed Xavier (26-10) won for the 16th time in 17 games and advanced to Sunday's regional final against Duke.
Brandon Mouton had 21 before fouling out for the Longhorns (25-8), who were trying to reach the Final Four for the second straight season. Brian Boddicker added 11, and P.J. Tucker finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Kansas 100, UAB 74
In St. Louis, Wayne Simien had 30 points, nine rebounds and five assists as Kansas had few problems handling Alabama-Birmingham's frenetic defense, moving a step closer to their third straight Final Four.
Kansas (24-8) advanced to play Georgia Tech for a trip to San Antonio. The St. Louis Regional final will be played Sunday.
Aaron Miles keyed it all by outrunning the press, either hitting all sorts of twisting layups or dishing off to wide-open teammates. He finished with 10 assists.
Freshman J.R. Giddens had 18 points and Jeff Graves added 13 points and eight rebounds.
Georgia Tech 72, Nevada 67
In St. Louis, Marvin Lewis had 23 points and Will Bynum made a huge layup with 65 seconds left to give Georgia Tech a victory over Nevada.
The third-seeded Yellow Jackets (26-9) are in the regional finals for just the third time in school history and the first time since 1990.
The 10th-seeded Wolf Pack (25-9) knocked off Michigan State and routed Gonzaga to make the round of 16, and it seemed as if another upset was in the making early -- especially with Georgia Tech forced to play without B.J. Elder.
Elder, who is averaging 16.2 points, sprained his right ankle less than two minutes into the game when Kirk Snyder landed on it.
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