Tennessee beats up Duke, wins 65-52 to advance to Sweet 16

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Olivier Nkamhoua tied his profession precocious pinch 27 points, including 13 consecutive for Tennessee during a decisive span successful nan 2nd half, and nan fourth-seeded Volunteers hit Duke 65-52 connected Saturday to beforehand to nan Sweet 16 for nan first clip since 2019.

Tennessee (25-10) ended Duke’s 10-game winning streak and sent first-year coach Jon Scheyer, charged pinch replacing Mike Krzyzewski, location aft conscionable 2 NCAA Tournament games. Not judge Coach K could person done immoderate different to combat these Vols, who utilized a marque of “bully ball” to nonstop nan fifth-seeded Blue Devils (27-9) packing.

Nkamhoua put an exclamation people connected Tennessee’s triumph pinch an emphatic slam pinch 1:15 remaining. It prompted Vols fans to commencement chanting and sent galore Duke fans toward nan exits.

Tennessee precocious to look Florida Atlantic aliases Fairleigh Dickinson connected Thursday astatine Madison Square Garden successful New York City.

Duke didn’t grip Tennessee’s beingness style very good each afternoon. The Volunteers group nan reside early, intelligibly wanting to push astir Kyle Filipowski and get hands successful nan faces of guards Jeremy Roach and Tyrese Proctor.

Vols large man Uros Plavsic picked up 2 violative fouls successful nan first 4 minutes, some going against Filipowski. Duke’s 7-footer later took an elbow to his look and ended up pinch a mini trim nether his near eye.

Proctor struggled to inbound nan shot respective times, getting a five-second call, turning it complete erstwhile and astir giving it up again. Roach had moreover much issues, finishing nan first half pinch 3 fouls and 4 turnovers.

The Vols, meanwhile, took overmuch amended attraction of nan shot than they did successful their first-round triumph against Louisiana-Lafayette. They turned it complete conscionable 9 times, their fewest since constituent defender Zakai Zeigler sustained a season-ending knee wounded past month.

Proctor led Duke pinch 16 points. Roach and Filipowski chipped successful 13 apiece.

___

AP March Madness coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness and bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25