NEW YORK — Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament started with No. 7 Duke’s tougher-than-expected 88-79 victory Thursday over ninth-seeded Syracuse, which was playing without suspended star Buddy Boeheim.
Wendell Moore Jr. scored 26 points and Jeremy Roach had 17 in the second half as top-seeded Duke (27-5) hung on to advance to Friday’s semifinals at Barclays Center against Miami.
The loss leaves Syracuse with a losing record at 16-17. With the NCAA Tournament out of the question and the NIT highly unlikely, the Orange are looking at their first sub-.500 season in 46 seasons under Coach Jim Boeheim.
Buddy Boeheim was suspended for the game by the conference for a “flagrant act” after he punched a Florida State player in the stomach during the Orange’s second-round victory Wednesday.
(2) ARIZONA 84, STANFORD 80: Christian Koloko scored 24 points, Bennedict Mathurin added 20 and No. 2 Arizona (29-3) held off Stanford (16-16) in the Pac-12 quarterfinals in Las Vegas.
The top-seeded Wildcats had a hard time shaking the Cardinal in a win late in the regular season and faced a similar issue to open the tournament. Ninth-seeded Stanford beat Arizona State on a buzzer-beater to open the show in Las Vegas on Wednesday and hit Arizona with a flurry of 3-pointers in the encore.
OKLAHOMA 72, (3) BAYLOR 67: Umoja Gibson scored 14 points, including a crucial three-point play with less than a minute to go, and Oklahoma (18-14) rallied in the second half to beat third-ranked Baylor (26-6) in the Big 12 quarterfinals.
Jacob Groves added 15 points, Marvin Johnson made two foul shots with five seconds left to finish with 12, and the Sooners avenged two regular-season losses to the Bears with a win that could go a long way toward an NCAA Tournament bid.
Akinjo finished with 16 points but was just 6 of 16 from the field for Baylor, the co-champions with Kansas during the regular season. Jeremy Sochan added 13 points and nine rebounds off the bench.
(6) KANSAS 87, WEST VIRGINIA 63: Ochai Agbaji led sixth-ranked Kansas with 18 points, West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins picked up two technical fouls and was ejected 10 minutes into the game, and the Jayhawks (26-6) cruised past the Mountaineers (16-17) in the Big 12 Tournament.
The top-seeded Jayhawks will play fifth-seeded TCU on Friday night for a spot in the title game. The Horned Frogs rallied from 20 down to beat No. 22 Texas earlier in the day.
Christian Braun added 11 points and 15 rebounds for Kansas, which jumped out to a 41-19 lead by halftime and was never seriously threatened down the stretch. Jalen Wilson had 15 points and Mitch Lightfoot finished with 10.
(11) PROVIDENCE 65, BUTLER 61: Al Durham drained a go-ahead 3-pointer with 41 seconds left for his first basket of the game, and No. 11 Providence (25-4) barely got past pesky Butler (14-19) in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals.
Nate Watson scored a season-high 26 points for the top-seeded Friars, who avoided an early exit at Madison Square Garden after winning the first regular-season conference championship in school history. Jared Bynum, the league’s sixth man of the year, added 16 points off the bench as Providence advanced to the Big East semifinals for the first time since 2018.
TCU 65, (22) TEXAS 60: Damion Baugh led TCU on a frantic second-half comeback, Eddie Lampkin provided the go-ahead bucket with 39 seconds left, and the Horned Frogs (20-11) rallied from a 20-point deficit to beat No. 22 Texas (21-11) in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament.
Baugh finished with 17 points, and Mike Miles overcame an ankle injury and a dreadful first half to add 13 points as fifth-seeded TCU rode its school-record fifth win over a ranked team this season into a semifinal matchup with No. 6 Kansas.
(24) IOWA 112, NORTHWESTERN 76: Keegan Murray scored 26 points, Jordan Bohannon had 17 and No. 24 Iowa (23-9) beat Northwestern (15-16) in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.
The Hawkeyes delivered a historic performance in Coach Fran McCaffery’s 400th game, breaking single-game tourney records for points, field goals (43) and 3-point baskets (19).
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