NCAA men’s tournament Sweet 16: Caleb Foster steadies Duke in win over St. John's
WASHINGTON — Caleb Foster returned from a broken foot and rescued Duke's national title hopes, helping the top-seeded Blue Devils rally from a 10-point second-half deficit to beat St. John's 80-75 on Friday night and advance to the Elite Eight.
Playing less than three weeks after surgery on his left foot, Foster scored all of his 11 points in the second half. Isaiah Evans scored 25 points and Cameron Boozer had 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Blue Devils (35-2), who extended the nation's longest active winning streak to 14, but not before the tenacious Red Storm (30-7) pushed Duke to the wire.
Duke will face either second-seeded UConn or third-seeded Michigan State in Sunday’s East Region final.
The Blue Devils led 77-74 with 32.4 seconds left when Boozer missed the front end of a one-and-one. Zuby Ejiofor drew a foul at the other end with 14.7 seconds to play, but the St. John's standout made only one of two free throws.
Evans also made one of two, giving the Red Storm one last chance to tie it, down 78-75. But Dylan Darling — whose layup at the buzzer against Kansas in the previous round put St. John's in the Sweet 16 — missed badly from well beyond the arc. Boozer made two free throws with 1.5 seconds left.
It was just the second loss for St. John's coach Rick Pitino in 14 visits to the Sweet 16 — and just the second loss for this season's Red Storm in their final 23 games.
CHICAGO — Yaxel Lendeborg had 23 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists in a dazzling all-around performance, and Michigan beat Alabama 90-77 on Friday night to advance to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years.
Trey McKenney and Elliot Cadeau each scored 17 points as top-seeded Michigan set a school record with its 34th win of the season. Roddy Gayle Jr. finished with 16 points.
Led by McKenney and Gayle, the Wolverines (34-3) enjoyed a 33-6 advantage in bench points. But the versatile Lendeborg was the star of the show as his team grabbed control in the second half.
Next up for the Wolverines is Sunday's Midwest Region final against the winner of Tennessee-Iowa State.
Labaron Philon Jr. scored 35 points for fourth-seeded Alabama, which reached the Elite Eight each of the previous two years. Latrell Wrightsell Jr. had 15 points.
Alabama (25-10) was once again without star guard Aden Holloway, who missed the school's tournament run after he was suspended indefinitely following a March 16 arrest on felony drug charges.
Even without Holloway, the Crimson Tide stayed right with the Wolverines for much of the up-tempo matchup of two of the tournament's highest scoring teams. But everything changed when Lendeborg, the Big Ten player of the year, started to assert himself at the beginning of the second half.
