Duke beats Baylor on the boards to reach Final Four

Reporting from Houston — 

It’s the inherent risk for any team that plays a zone defense: the susceptibility of being beaten to the rebound.

It’s a calculated bet a coach makes — and one Baylor Coach Scott Drew lost Sunday as Duke defeated the Bears, 78-71, and advanced to the Final Four to face West Virginia.

“We just couldn’t keep them off the glass,” Baylor’s Ekpe Udoh said.

The Blue Devils (33-5) had 22 offensive rebounds, leading to 23 second-chance points, to reach their first Final Four since 2004.

“It was big-time,” Duke forward Lance Thomas said of the offensive rebounds. “They couldn’t really rotate over to get rebounds, especially with the shot-blockers they had. If we penetrated the zone, one guy would’ve been open for the rebound.”

One of the oft-heard knocks on the Blue Devils in recent years is that they’re too soft. Push them, they won’t push back. But that wasn’t the case against a physical Baylor team (28-8) — and Thomas had the scars to prove it.

A 4-inch scratch across his forehead, a side effect of his eight offensive rebounds, was something he didn’t mind displaying.

“It was that physical out there,” Thomas said. “Scratches are the least of what I have.”

Thomas had two of the biggest offensive rebounds of the game. The first came with the score tied at 61 and Nolan Smith (game-high 29 points) at the free-throw line.

Smith missed, and Thomas fought his way through to grab the rebound. He passed to Kyle Singler, who kicked it back out to Smith for a three-pointer that gave Duke a 64-61 lead with 3:33 remaining.

Duke was up by five with 1:40 to play when Thomas flew down the lane after a Singler miss, grabbed the rebound above the rim and slammed it home as the Blue Devils’ long-delayed celebration began.

“It was my first tip dunk of the year,” Thomas said.

The rebounds were the reason Duke was able to overcome its 22-for-61 shooting from the field, including an 0-for-10 effort from Singler.

Jon Scheyer had five three-pointers for the Blue Devils and finished with 20 points.

As Thomas spoke, he clutched a piece of the net the Blue Devils cut down after the game. After five seasons in which they failed to reach the Final Four — an eternity in Blue Devils time — Duke is right back in its comfort zone.

“I don’t know if it’s fully hit me,” Scheyer said. “I’m sure after the year I’ll have a better appreciation. But right now, I’m just ecstatic and just really happy to share with all my teammates.”

chine@tribune.com