Olivier Nkamhoua tied his career-high with 27 points, including 13 straight for Tennessee during a critical juncture in the second half, and the fourth-seeded Volunteers beat Duke 65-52 on Saturday to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019.
Santiago Vescovi added 14 points and five dimes for Tennessee (25-10), which halted the Blue Devils’ 10-game winning streak and sent first-year coach Jon Scheyer, charged with the immeasurable task of replacing Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski, home after just two NCAA Tournament games. Not sure Coach K could have done anything different to combat these Vols, who used a brand of “bully ball” to send the fifth-seeded Blue Devils (27-9) packing back to Durham.
“We want to be physical,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “We feel we’re at our best when we can do that.”
Nkamhoua shot 10 of 13 from the field and put an exclamation point on Tennessee’s victory with an emphatic slam dunk with 1:15 left on the clock. It encouraged Vols fans to start chanting and sent Duke fans scrambling for the exits.
Tennessee advanced to face No. 9 seed Florida Atlantic or No.16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson on Thursday at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the worlds’ most famous arena.
Duke did not handle Tennessee’s imposing style of basketball with poise all afternoon. The Volunteers set the tone from the tip, clearly wanting to manhandle Kyle Filipowski and get their hands in the faces of guards Jeremy Roach and Tyrese Proctor.
Vols big man Uros Plavsic picked up two offensive fouls in the opening four minutes, both going against Filipowski. Duke’s 7-footer later took an elbow to his face and ended up with a small abrasion under his left eye.
Proctor struggled to inbound the ball several times, getting a five-second violation, turning it over once and nearly giving it up again. Roach had even worse luck, picking up his fourth foul with 15 minutes remaining and finishing with five turnovers.
“We’re always ready for a dogfight,” Nkamhoua said. “When we get people playing our game, that’s an advantage for us.”
It also paid huge dividends that the Vols took much better care of the ball than they did in their first-round victory against 13 seeded Louisiana-Lafayette. They turned it over just nine times, half as many as they did Thursday and their fewest since point guard Zakai Zeigler sustained a season-ending knee injury last month.
Proctor led Duke with a team-high 16 points. Roach and Filipowski contributed 13 each.
Duke: The team’s coming-of-age story ending in somewhat surprising fashion. With four highly touted freshmen in the starting lineup, Duke looked as if it was going to be a force to be reckoned with in the tournament. But Tennessee’s experience, the Vols start four seniors, proved to be the difference.
Tennessee: The Vols stumbled into the tournament having dropped six of their last 10 games, but now they have a winning streak and momentum going and have clearly re-established their identity as a big, physical, deep, defensive-minded team, capable of giving anyone fits.
Duke: The Blue Devils turn their attention to what happens with their talent-laden program and the NBA. All eyes will be on freshmen Dereck Lively II, Filipowski and Proctor and their upcoming decisions.
