Duke defeats Gonzaga to move onto Final Four

HOUSTON, Texas — Duke punched its ticket to the Final Four and it could be a sign of more Blue Devils’ victories to come.

Freshman forward Justise Winslow and sophomore guard Matt Jones scored 16 points apiece to lead the top-seeded Blue Devils past the second-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs 66-52 in the South Regional final on Sunday at NRG Stadium.

Duke (33-4) earned its first trip to the Final Four since a national championship season in 2010, when the Blue Devils also advanced through a regional in Houston.

This one tied Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski with UCLA legend John Wooden for the most Final Four appearances for a head coach with 12. However, Krzyzewski downplayed the coaching accomplishment while heaping praise on his current Blue Devils team.

“I’m in this moment,” Krzyzewski said, “my past is not important right now. My present is incredibly important, just being with these kids and sharing this moment and this Final Four. I’m so happy for them and to be with them. I’m not saying this because we won, I’ve said it the whole year. I love my team. They’re a pleasure to be with and as a result they’re taking me to Indy, which is kind of neat.”

Playing in the home of the NFL’s Houston Texans, Duke turned to a pair of Texans to lead it past Gonzaga. Winslow, from Houston, hit a 3-pointer with 2:48 left to give the Blue Devils a nine-point lead.

Jones, from Desoto, Texas, nailed four 3-pointers and put the exclamation point on the win with a steal and a fast-break layup with 45 seconds left for the Blue Devils’ final tally.

“Matt gave us such a huge lift,” Krzyzweski said. “He’s been the dirty work guy and for him to hit those four 3’s, it’s like a big difference the two Texas kids did pretty good today.”

Duke guard Tyus Jones scored 15, guard Quinn Cook added 10 and center Jahlil Okafor finished with nine points and eight rebounds.

Gonzaga (35-3) is still winless against top seeds, falling to 0-7 all-time. The Bulldogs reached the Elite Eight for only the second time and are still searching for their first Final Four appearance.

“We accomplished a lot and obviously wanted to make it to the Final Four, but we can look back and be pretty happy with what we’ve been able to do,” Gonzaga senior guard Kevin Pangos said. “We just fell a little short.”

Forward Kyle Wiltjer led Gonzaga with 16 points, but guard Byron Wesley, who finished with 10, was the only other Bulldogs player in dough digits.

Gonzaga scored the first five points out of halftime as guard Gary Bell hit a 3-pointer and Wiltjer added a fast-break tip-in to tie it a 31 less than two minutes into the second half.

The Bulldogs stayed on the attack and extended the run to 12-3 and took a four-point lead when Wesley completed a three-point play with 16:20 left.

But the Blue Devils responded by scoring nine straight to re-establish a five-point edge. Four different Duke players scored during the run, which Okafor finished with a jumper over Gonzaga center Przemek Karnowski.

Krzyzewski attributed the run to Duke’s defensive work as it clamped down on a prolific Gonzaga team.

“At the start, the first four minutes of the second half, we weren’t there for some reason,” Krzyzewski said. “After the two timeouts, one we called and one media, our guys responded and they played great defensively. I think they scored 14 points in the last almost 16 minutes. That’s just collective effort.”

Gonzaga, which came in averaging seven made 3-pointers, hit just 2 of 10 vs. Duke. The Bulldogs missed a trio of treys — one each by Bell, Pangos and Wiltjer — with the game tied at 38 around the 14:00 mark of the second half.

“That little sequence sticks out in my head,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “Those are the 3s we’ve been making all year. Those are the 3s that having been building runs for us all year and that get us going.”

Duke began the game shooting right on target, hitting four of its first five 3-pointers, capped by Cook’s 3-pointer to put the Blue Devils ahead 20-12.

Okafor then completed a three-point play to give Duke its largest lead of the first half at 11 points with 11:44 left before the break.

Gonzaga, which shoots more than 17 3-pointers per game, didn’t attempt a shot from beyond the arc for the first 12 minutes. Wiltjer finally hit a 3-pointer with 6:13 left in the half, starting a 7-0 run that cut Duke’s lead to one point.

With forward Domantas Sabonis guarding Okafor and the Blue Devlis cooling off from 3-point range, Duke went more than four minutes without scoring in the first half. Duke finished the first half four of 11 from beyond the arc. But the Blue Devils bounced back in time to score the last four points of the half and took a 31-26 lead to the break.

NOTES: This was the third all-meeting between Duke and Gonzaga and the first in the NCAA Tournament. Duke won the previous two games as well, both played at Madison Square Garden. … Duke improved to 12-2 in regional finals, while Gonzaga fell to 0-2. … Gonzaga shot 16 percent, 3-for-19, from 3-point range in its Sweet 16 win over UCLA, then hit just 2-for-10 against Duke.