Tennessee opens as underdog against Duke in second round of NCAA Tournament
ORLANDO — Tennessee opened as a three-point underdog against Duke for Saturday afternoon’s game in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Vols, the No. 4 seed in the East Region, advanced with a 58-53 win over Louisiana while Duke beat Oral Roberts 74-51.
Tennessee (24-10) and Duke (27-8) will tipoff at 2:40 p.m. Eastern Time Saturday at Amway Center. The game will be televised by CBS.
“I really haven’t seen (Duke) a lot this year, I haven’t,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Thursday night after the win over Louisiana. “But I know that they’re probably as hot as any basketball team in the country.”
Duke went 7-6 over 13 games between December 20 and February 11, dropping to 17-8 after back-to-back losses at Miami and Virginia, but since then have won 10 straight games.
Duke has won 10 straight games, 13 of last 15
The Blue Devils beat Pitt, Miami and Virginia over three days last week to win the ACC Tournament championship in Greensboro.
“I know Jon Scheyer has done a great job,” Barnes said of the first-year Duke head coach. “I know they had some injuries early in the year and coming down the stretch and when you win your conference tournament. And they beat a good team today.”
Jeremy Roach scored 23 points and Dariq Whitehead had 13 off the bench to pace Duke in the win over Oral Roberts. The Blue Devils shot 48.4 percent from teh floor and 37.5 percent from the 3-point line and outrebounded ORU 46-32.
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“What little bit I did see,” Barnes said, “I thought their defense was outstanding against a team that can really shoot the ball. And like I said, they’re a team that probably is as hot as any team in the country right now.”
Up Next: No. 4 Tennessee vs. No. 5 Duke, Saturday, 2:40 p.m. ET CBS
Tennessee led Louisiana by 18 points with 12 minutes left Thursday, only to see Louisiana go on an 13-0 run to get back within five. Josiah-Jordan James and Julian free throws made a free throw each in the closing seconds, after the Ragin’ Cajuns got back within five.
The Vols got 12 points from Tyreke Key and 11 more from Jahmai Mashack. Uros Plavsic started and scored nine points and had four rebounds and Olivier Nkamhoua had eight points and five boards. Santiago Vescovi scored only three points after dealing with early foul trouble. James finished with eight points.
“We’ve been in those kind of games all year long,” Barnes said. “You go back to our conference, we’ve been in — it’s been a battle all year in the SEC, so we’ve been in those situations. We just really believe if we can guard to the best of our ability and rebound the ball, we’ll find a way to — it’s not always pretty — to get it done on the offensive end for us.
“But we’ll find a way. We’ll just stay in the game defensively and rebound it.”
