Friday, March 23, 2001
Duke 76, UCLA 63
By JIM O'CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer
PHILADELPHIA — Jason Williams took over in the second half, scoring 19 straight points to help top-ranked Duke reach the regional finals for the 10th time in 16 years.
The sophomore guard, one of the Blue Devils' two All-Americans, matched his career high with 34 points as Duke beat fourth-seeded UCLA 76-63 Thursday night in the East Regional semifinals.
The Blue Devils (32-4) will play sixth-seeded Southern California, which beat second-seeded Kentucky 80-76, on Saturday with a berth in the Final Four at stake.
Williams started his personal run with a 3-pointer — one of six he had in the game — and added in some slicing drives, a converted lob pass and two more 3s. He had 26 points in the second half.
Every time the Bruins (23-9) seemed to get any kind of momentum as they tried to wipe out a 33-26 halftime deficit, Williams found a way to score. His one-man run started with 14:29 to play and restored Duke's lead to six points after Earl Watson's 3 brought the Bruins within three at 40-37.
It ended with a drive that put the Blue Devils up 59-51 with 8:40 to play.
UCLA was never able to get closer than that the rest of the way as Duke closed the game by going 8-for-8 from the free-throw line over the final 1:29.
Shane Battier, Duke's other All-American, had a great first half, finishing with 14 points and eight rebounds in the opening 20 minutes. He finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds, the third game in this tournament he has had at least 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Watson had 17 points for UCLA, while Jason Kapono, the Bruins' leading scorer had 12, five below his average, on 3-for-10 shooting as he struggled with foul trouble, getting four in the first half.
It wasn't the first time Williams had a great game in the First Union Center as he scored 30 in the building against Temple on Dec. 2, including going 8-for-10 from 3-point range.
Williams finished 6-for-13 from beyond the arc against UCLA and the Blue Devils were 8-for-31 after going 4-for-19 in the first half.
Williams had 22 points in Duke's opening-round win over Monmouth and had 31 in the second-round win over Missouri.
The game marked the return of Duke center Carlos Boozer, who had missed the last six games after breaking a bone in his foot. He finished with two points and six rebounds in 22 minutes.
The game was a matchup of the two winningest teams in NCAA tournament play as Duke entered 69-22 (75.8 percent) and UCLA was 78-28 (73.4 percent).
The crowd of 20,270 was the largest to ever see a college basketball game in Pennsylvania.
Complete tournament coverage at Cincinnati.com
UCLA (63)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Barnes 31 3-8 3-5 3-11 3 5 9
Kapono 33 3-10 4-6 1-5 2 4 12
Gadzuric 38 5-12 0-1 1-9 1 2 10
Knight 28 4-13 3-4 2-4 0 3 13
Watson 39 7-12 2-2 2-6 5 4 17
Flowers 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Bailey 5 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Young 19 1-4 0-0 0-0 0 3 2
Cummings 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 3 0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 23-60 12-18 9-35 11 24 63
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.383, FT-.667. 3-Point Goals:
5-14, .357 (Kapono 2-5, Knight 2-5, Watson 1-2,
Young 0-2). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 3
(Gadzuric 2, Watson). Turnovers: 23 (Barnes 5,
Kapono 4, Knight 4, Gadzuric 3, Watson 3, Young
3, Cummings). Steals: 10 (Kapono 3, Bailey 2,
Barnes 2, Gadzuric, Knight, Watson).
DUKE (76)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Battier 39 6-14 10-11 2-11 1 2 24
Dunleavy 30 3-11 1-2 3-5 3 3 7
Sanders 16 0-1 3-4 1-3 0 2 3
Duhon 38 0-2 4-7 2-5 4 2 4
Williams 37 11-21 6-6 0-2 4 0 34
Boozer 22 1-2 0-0 0-6 0 4 2
Simpson 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
James 13 1-4 0-0 0-3 1 2 2
Buckner 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Love 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 22-55 24-30 8-35 13 16 76
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.400, FT-.800. 3-Point Goals:
8-31, .258 (Battier 2-7, Dunleavy 0-6, Duhon 0-2,
Williams 6-13, James 0-3). Team rebounds: 2.
Blocked shots: 5 (Battier, Sanders, Boozer,
James, Love). Turnovers: 17 (Williams 8, Duhon 3,
Dunleavy 2, James 2, Battier, Boozer). Steals: 17
(Battier 4, Duhon 4, Dunleavy 3, Williams 3,
Boozer 2, James).
__________________________________
Ucla 26 37 - 63
Duke 33 43 - 76
__________________________________
Technical fouls: None. A: 20,270. Officials: Ed
Corbett, Ted Hillary, John Hughes.
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Duke 76, UCLA 63 
