NCAA tournament: No. 1-seeded Duke defeats No. 4 Purdue, 70-57

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

This is more like it for Coach K and Duke.

The top-seeded Blue Devils returned to the round of eight for the first time since 2004, with Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer helping them pull away in the second half tonight for a 70-57 win over Purdue in the South Regional semifinals in Houston.

Singler scored 24 points and Scheyer added 18, snapping out of a shooting slump just in time.

Duke (32-5) will play third-seeded Baylor in Sunday’s regional final after clearing a nagging hurdle that had some wondering if the mighty program was losing its edge.

The Blue Devils had lost in the round of 16 in three of the last five seasons, but now stand one victory from their 11th Final Four appearance under Coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Duke kept marching through the NCAA tournament while other favorites are falling by the wayside.

Scheyer, Duke’s leading scorer, was fie-for-18 shooting from the field in Duke’s first two NCAA tournament games. He went five for nine in the second half after missing his first six shots and also went seven of eight from the foul line.

It was 31-all with 15 1/2 minutes left before the Blue Devils broke away.

Brian Zoubek grabbed 14 rebounds and Duke dominated the undersized Boilermakers inside, as expected. The absence of injured do-everything forward Robbie Hummel finally caught up with fourth-seeded Purdue (29-6), which lost in the regional semifinals for the second consecutive season.

Hummel tore his right ACL in late February and watched Friday’s loss in street clothes from the bench.

-- Associated Press

RELATED: NCAA tournament interactive bracket

RELATED: NCAA tournament photos