Sports

WASHINGTON (AP) ― For Duke, there was no escaping this: Coach Bob Huggins has West Virginia playing tough man-to-man defense and hustling after every rebound.

Joe Alexander had 22 points and 11 rebounds, and No. 7-seeded West Virginia reached the NCAA tournament's round of 16 in Huggins' first season at his alma mater by beating second-seeded Duke 73-67 in the West Regional on Saturday.

West Virginia (26-10) limited Duke to 38 percent shooting and held a 47-27 edge on the boards. The Mountaineers also got 17 points from Alex Ruoff, and 13 points and 11 rebounds from reserve guard Joe Mazzulla, and advanced to face No. 3 Xavier or No. 6 Purdue in Phoenix on Thursday.

It represents quite a quick comeback for Huggins, who was out of work two years ago.

He got fired at Cincinnati - a school he led to the 1992 Final Four-after a drunken driving arrest, then sat out a season before surfacing at Kansas State in 2007. He took that team to the NIT, losing in the second round.

Now he's back home in West Virginia, at the school he played for, and back among basketball's elite.

His Duke counterpart, Mike Krzyzewski, is heading in the opposite direction.

Every year from 1997 through 2006, Duke was a participant in the round of 16. Every single year. It's a stretch that featured three trips to the Final Four and the 2001 national championship. But now Krzyzewski's team is on a two-year drought, having bowed out in the first round in 2007.

After eking out a one-point victory over No. 15-seed Belmont in the first round, three-time national champion Duke (28-6) looked much better en route to a 34-29 halftime lead against West Virginia.

And the Blue Devils went up 37-29 early in the second half.

Then things changed completely.

After missing all six 3-pointers it took in the first half, West Virginia made its first three in the second, part of an 18-3 run that put the Mountaineers in front.

When Alexander made a layup off the glass while getting fouled and then completed the three-point play with 14:38 left in the game, he put West Virginia ahead 40-38, its first lead since 4-3.

Mazzulla's drive down the lane made it 47-40 with under 12 minutes left, capping that big spurt. Duke called timeout, and Mazzulla screamed and pounded his chest, first with one fist, then the other.

At the other end, the Blue Devils simply could not seem to make a shot. At one point, point guard Greg Paulus was 2-for-7 on 3s-and his teammates were a combined 0-for-11. There were stretches of the second half when Duke's offense pretty much amounted to going down court, calling out a play, then hoisting an off-the-mark jumper.

Heck, even free throws began bedeviling the Blue Devils, who went 12-for-20 at the line in the second half after a 12-for-12 first half.

Everyone got in on the act for the Mountaineers, meanwhile, with Huggins glowering and stomping and yelling all the while.

Cam Thoroughman, a 6-foot-7 freshman who had 16 rebounds all season, grabbed two consecutive boards to keep one possession alive, then eventually made a layup for a 62-51 lead with 31/2 minutes left. Duke finally made some desperation shots down the stretch, but the outcome was decided.

Huggins was his usual loud presence on the sideline. He drew a technical foul during a 14-0 run by Duke in the first half, arguing about a call against one of his players.

Later in the game, he kept working the officials.

After West Virginia's Wellington Smith was called for his fourth personal with 11 minutes still to go, Huggins turned to one of the men in stripes and said sarcastically of Duke's defenders, "They don't foul. They don't foul. I know that."

UCLA 53, Texas A&M 49
West Region, California

Freshman Kevin Love had 19 points and 11 rebounds -- his 21st double-double -- and UCLA overcame the combined 3-of-14 shooting of Shipp and Russell Westbrook. Love had seven of UCLA's 11 blocked shots. Sloan led the Aggies (25-11) with 12 points and Josh Carter added 10. A&M was trying to get back to the final 16 for the second straight year. Instead, the Aggies fell to 7-10 in NCAA tourney games and 0-4 against UCLA.

"I thought we were in total control, always one step ahead," first-year A&M coach Mark Turgeon said. "I thought we were going to win."

Collison led UCLA with 21 points, including 14 in the first half when he didn't miss a shot from the field, line or 3-point range.

Love, the newcomer to NCAA tourney pressure, and Collison, the wily veteran of consecutive Final Four appearances, dominated the final 3 minutes. Love converted consecutive turnaround jumpers -- one tied it at 45 and the other gave the Bruins their first lead since late in the first half.


Kansas State 55, Wisconsin 72
Midwest Region, Omaha
Trevon Hughes matched his career high with 25 points, and the third-seeded Badgers shut down Kansas State freshman star Michael Beasley in the second half.


Beasley had 23 points for the 11th-seeded Wildcats, but just six after halftime.


Michael Flowers had 15 points and Greg Stiemsma 14 for the Badgers (31-4), who set a school record for wins in a season and head to the round of 16 in Detroit with 12 straight wins and 25 victories in the last 27 games.


Beasley, just 2-for-6 in the second half, hugged teammates and coaches when he left the game with 53.9 seconds left. Many expect him to declare for the NBA draft.


Bill Walker added 18 for the Wildcats (21-12), who were 0-for-13 from 3-point range.

Purdue 78, Xavier 85
West Region, Washington D.C.


C.J. Anderson and Drew Lavender each scored 18 points and Josh Duncan had 16, and No. 3 seed Xavier was surprisingly efficient on offense in a victory over Purdue.


The Musketeers (29-6) shot 54 percent in breaking the school record for wins, going 26-for-33 at the free throw line and 27-for-50 from the floor against a team that led the Big Ten in field goal percentage defense. Their 85 points were the most allowed by Purdue this season.


Keaton Grant scored 19 for the Boilermakers (25-9), who have won 10 straight first-round games but have exited without another win in half those tournaments-including two in a row.


Lavender, a 5-foot-7 guard, had nine assists and provided Xavier with a pivotal basket after the Musketeers frittered away an almost insurmountable lead in this defensive struggle.


Stanford 82, Marquette 81
South Region, Anaheim


Stanford coach Trent Johnson missed an amazing game.


Ejected for unsportsmanlike behavior in the first half, Johnson wasn't around to see the Cardinal defeat Marquette 82-81 in overtime Saturday night in the NCAA's South Regional on Saturday, advancing to the round of 16 for the first time since 2001.


Brook Lopez made a baseline leaner with 1.3 seconds left to win it for the Cardinal. Lopez, one of Stanford's twin 7-footers, finished with 30 points, one shy of a career high. Lopez scored eight of Stanford's 11 points in overtime as the Cardinal took advantage of a big size difference.


The Cardinal advanced to Houston, where they will face Miami or Texas.

Washington State 61, Notre Dame 41
East Region, Denver
 
Derrick Low scored 18 points and Kyle Weaver added 15, and the Cougars won a clash of styles by shutting down Luke Harangody and the high-flying Fighting Irish.


Washington State held the Big East's Player of the Year to 10 points, half his average, and limited the Irish (25-8) to half their scoring average, too. Harangody did have 22 rebounds.


Washington State advanced to play the winner of Sunday's Arkansas-North Carolina game.


Robbie Cowgill added 12 points for the fourth-seeded Cougars (26-8), who won a second game in the tournament for the first time since 1941, when they lost to Wisconsin in the national championship game.

Kansas 75, UNLV 56
Midwest Region, Omaha


Mario Chalmers scored 17 points and the top-seeded Jayhawks pulled away from UNLV in the second half in another romp that sent Kansas to the round of 16.


Chalmers had plenty of help: Russell Robinson scored 13, Brandon Rush had 12 and Sherron Collins 10. That depth proved too much for the Runnin' Rebels (27-8), who barely had enough personnel to finish the game after two of their 10 players in uniform fouled out.


The Rebels shot 27 percent (12 of 45) and were outrebounded 36-26. Kansas (33-3) shot 58 percent in what amounted to a brisk workout before playing the winner of Sunday's Villanova-Siena game next week in Detroit.

Michigan State 65, Pittsburgh 54
South Region, Denver


All this talk about brawn and brute force gets old. Drew Neitzel and Kalin Lucas let everyone know these Michigan State guys can dribble and shoot it, too.


The Spartans guards went on a late ballhandling and scoring spree to help Michigan State pull away from Pittsburgh for a 65-54 victory Saturday night in the South Regional.


Lucas and Neitzel combined for 21 of the final 25 points for the fifth-seeded Spartans to help them win a battle of the bullies-a rough-and-tumble game between two Rust Belt teams who brought their show to the Rocky Mountains.


Neitzel led the Spartans with 21 points, and Lucas finished with 19. Levance Fields had 19 points for fourth-seeded Pitt (27-10), which had won six straight.


Leading by one, Neitzel scored eight straight points-including an amazing shake-and-bake move to get shooting room in front of Ronald Ramon-to give Michigan State (27-8) a five-point lead with 4 minutes left.


A bit later, Lucas drove to the basket for a layup, then the two combined when Neitzel picked up a loose ball and fed it ahead to Lucas for an uncontested layup-one of the very few easy scores in this hotly contested game-for a 59-50 lead.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)