SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Allan Ray fought through his struggles and made a clutch shot in the final seconds, drawing contact from Melvin Scott at the same time and leaving Villanova one free throw away from a tie.

Except it didn't count. Instead, referee Tom O'Neill called Ray for traveling, and North Carolina gained possession with a three-point lead.

"I thought the ref called the foul, but he called the walk," said Ray, who shot 2-for-14. "I feel we should have never put ourselves in that position anyway. I can't say that's the reason we lost, because of that one play."

The top-seeded Tar Heels took advantage of the good fortune, holding off the Wildcats 67-66 Friday night to advance to the regional finals for the first time since 2000.

Following the turnover, fifth-seeded Villanova (24-8) was forced to foul, and Rashad McCants made a free throw with 7.6 seconds left to increase the Tar Heels' margin to four. Kyle Lowry rattled in a 3-pointer about 5 seconds later to bring the Wildcats to 67-66, and he chased down Sean May's errant inbounds pass just before the buzzer.

But his desperation heave was wide, letting North Carolina (30-4) move on to play Wisconsin in the Syracuse Regional. The Badgers beat North Carolina State 65-56 earlier Friday.

"We all just hung in there and stuck together," Scott said. "We just found a way. It wasn't coaching, it was us. We did it."

McCants scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half and Marvin Williams added 16 for the Tar Heels. Point guard Raymond Felton had 11 points, 11 rebounds and five assists before fouling out for the first time this season.

Randy Foye led the Wildcats with a career-high 28 points, and Lowry also set his career best with 18 points. Ray, the leading scorer coming in with an average of 16.5 points, had another miserable performance and finished 3-for-32 in the tournament.

"We gave it our all out there," Ray said. "We didn't give up."

AUSTIN, Texas - Tom Izzo demanded intensity from start to finish from his Michigan State players if they expected to beat Duke.He got it, and the Spartans are moving on in the NCAA tournament.Paul Davis led a bruising Michigan State squad with 20 points and 12 rebounds and the fifth-seeded Spartans knocked off top-seeded Duke Friday night in the Austin Regional semifinals.The win sends the Spartans (25-6) to Sunday's regional final against No. 2 seed Kentucky (28-5). The winner of that game goes to the Final Four.The victory gave Izzo his first win over Duke and coach Mike Krzyzewski in five meetings, including a loss in the 1999 Final Four, the year before the Spartans won the national title."I didn't give them a Knute Rockne speech. I just told them to give me 40 intense minutes," Izzo said. "I'm tickled with the win.He was tickled but the action of the floor wasn't exactly touchy-feely.Davis and Duke forward Shelden Williams pounded each other under the basket. On the perimeter, the Spartans used waves of defenders to harass up Duke sharpshooter J.J. Redick, the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year.The result was a frustrated Redick having his third straight subpar game in the NCAA tournament as he desperately looked for open shots.He found only a few, finishing with just 13 points. Only twice did he get to the free throw line where the 94 percent shooter might have done some damage.

AUSTIN, Texas - With three 7-footers on the roster, the Kentucky Wildcats felt good about their chances of going one-on-one against Utah's All-America center Andrew Bogut. If nothing else, those big men represented 15 fouls.Then starting center Randolph Morris burned two in the first 90 seconds. That meant coach Tubby Smith had to turn to a pair of centers that he had kept on the bench in a total of 11 games this season.Shagari Alleyne and Lukasz Obrzut responded perfectly, using every inch of their long frames to pester Bogut into the worst offensive game of his career, paving the way for a Friday night in a semifinal of the Austin Regional."They were fired up, looking forward to it," Smith said.Although Bogut finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds, he made just 8 of 19 shots - matching the most misses of his career - and was a career-worst 4-for-11 from the line.His aim was better in the second half than the first, but his rebounding fell off. Unlike the previous game when he offset 10 points with a career-high seven assists, he didn't have any this time.Kentucky (28-5) was just as impressive on offense, shooting a season-best 62 percent - missing just six 2-pointers - even while emptying the bench. Ten players got at least 11 minutes and none more than the 27 logged by Rajon Rondo.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan thanked his players for recovering from an awful first half, and showed a little gratitude for someone else who made the Badgers' trip to the Syracuse Regional finals possible."Whoever it was who (invented) the first halftime," Ryan said. "I'm sure glad he did."Alando Tucker scored 22 points, including eight straight during a 13-0 run, and Wisconsin recovered from a lethargic first half to beat North Carolina State and advance to the NCAA tournament's round of eight.Mike Wilkinson scored 17, the final two on a breakaway dunk with 20 seconds left that prompted the rest of the Badgers to leap for joy on the court.Sixth-seeded Wisconsin (25-8) will play Sunday for a berth in the Final Four against top-seeded North Carolina.Wisconsin scored 26 of the first 33 points in the second half, improving from 39 percent shooting to 58 percent. After the Badgers missed their three 3-pointers in the first, they hit 4-of-7 in the second. They had 11 turnovers in the first, with zero assists. In the second half, it was a far more respectable seven and seven.