No repeat for Duke as Derrick Williams leads Arizona to the elite eight

With the Duke-Arizona first half coming to an end, Derrick Williams hit a fade away three point jumper to cut the Duke lead to 6 at 44 to 38. The Pac 10 Player of the year Williams kept Arizona in the game in the first half. Williams scored 25 of the Wildcats 38 first half points including hitting 5 of the 6 threes he attempted. Arizona coach Sean Miller said about his star, "I really felt like it was two different games. The first half, Derrick's individual play allowed us to have a chance. I mean he scored 25 points in one half. Made five 3s in one half. We were down 6. We could have had a huge deficit at halftime, but he gave us a chance." Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was also impressed by Williams first half play. He said, "Williams, he's just a superb player. He's as good as anybody we've played, or I should say better than anybody we've played. He kept his team in there in the first half.  I thought we played a little better than the score in the first half, but Williams getting 25 just kept them in." Williams definitely kept the Wildcats in the game, as no other Arizona player had more than four points in the first half.

In the second half, Arizona outscored Duke 55 to 33 and it was the other Wildcat players who stepped up big. The Wildcats came right out of the gate on fire, as they cut the Duke lead to only one point in just 3 minutes of play. After two Lamont Jones free throws with 15:18 remaining in the second half gave Arizona a 55 to 53 lead, they never relinquished it. Duke point guard Kyrie Irving said, "After we lost the lead, I think everyone got a little rattled. We tried to settle down, but by then it was too late." Krzyzewski said, "They just got on a real roll. When you get on a roll, you have more energy than the other guy,"said. "We had no stop for them, and you kind of get overwhelmed there for a little bit. They knocked us back and got that double-digit lead." Lamont Jones scored 14 points in the second half and Solomon Hill added 10 second half points. Jones said, As a team, we came together and willed ourselves to win. Derrick is a great player, but we all contribute." Williams finished the game with 32, a career high, after scoring 7 points in the second half.

For Duke, the loss to the Wildcats is a very disappointing end to a great season. Krzyzewski said, "The tournament is cruel. It's an abrupt end for everybody when you don't win." After missing 26 straight games with a toe injury, Kyrie Irving played significant minutes for the first time. He played 31 minutes for the Blue Devils and had a great game scoring 28 points on 9 of 15 shooting from the field. However, his return looked like it ruined the chemistry of the top seeded Blue Devils. They had played almost the entire season without Irving and had developed a groove and felt comfortable with their roles. With Irving's return, the other guys on the floor looked out of sync. Seth Curry and Mason Plumlee, who had stepped up and played very well in Irving's absence, only combined for 10 points. Nolan Smith, the ACC player of the year, had his worst game of the season. Smith only scored 8 points, about 12 below his average, and was 3 for 14 from the field. The ball was in Kyrie's hands at the end of the game and Irving, not Smith, was directing the offense. The Blue Devils didn't look like the same team who had earned a one seed.

Arizona advances to their first elite eight since 2005 and is looking to head to the schools fifth final four and first since 2001. Derrick Williams said, "Makes me feel great that if we win this game on Saturday we're going to be known as one of the best Arizona teams to play, and, you know, just to have our name up there, this is the fourth Arizona team to have 30 wins and that's a great accomplishment right there... The Elite Eight is great, but we're not looking to stop right there. We're trying to win a national championship one step at a time, and one more game we're in the Final Four. That's what we want to do. That's one of our team goals this season was not only to get in the tournament, but to make a run in the tournament and so far we're doing that."