Duke loses, UCLA survives in NCAA hoop play

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - On the same day the NCAA Tournament lost one of its four number two seeds, a number one barely escaped to advance to next weekend's Sweet 16.

Second-seeded Duke's quest for a fourth national championship ended abruptly in the second round when West Virginia used an astonishing rally to shock the Blue Devils 73-67 in the West Region on Saturday.

Later, UCLA, the top seed in the West, pulled out a 53-49 decision over number nine Texas A&M in Anaheim, Calif.

The Bruins were tied 49-49 when Darren Collison hit a runner with 9.5 seconds left and UCLA denied Texas A&M a shot on the final possession. Russell Westbrook added a dunk as time expired.

"We made big plays by big-time players down the stretch," UCLA coach Ben Howland told the television audience. "The thing I'm most proud of, and we've had a lot of games like this, is that we never quit, never gave up. We were fortunate to win and I'm glad we did."

Collison finished with 21 points.

BE-DEVILED

Duke (28-6) held a 34-29 lead at the intermission but wilted in the second half when number seven West Virginia outshot, outrebounded and outhustled the Blue Devils.

"No matter how well or how hard you're playing, you've got to put the ball in the basket, and we didn't do that today," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, coach of the U.S. Olympic team.

After hitting just 36 percent of their shots in the opening half, seventh-seeded West Virginia connected on 12 of 26 (46 percent) thereafter while outrebounding the Blue Devils 25-11.

Sophomore guard Joe Mazzulla was the catalyst for West Virginia, scoring 13 points while adding 11 rebounds and eight assists.

"Duke does as good a job of putting pressure on the ball as anybody," said Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins, who has taken his team to the round of 16 in his first season on the job. "They try to take you out of what you want to run.

"Joe's our best guy at just straight lining, driving the ball to the goal."

HOT-SHOOTING

Duke held a 37-29 advantage with 17 minutes left in the game but the suddenly hot-shooting Mountaineers went on an 18-3 run over the next six minutes to take a 47-40 lead.

The Blue Devils were unable to respond, shooting only 36 percent in the second half. At one point, Duke missed 15 straight shots from three-point range.

Duke's leading scorer, DeMarcus Nelson, finished with six points, nine below his average, while hitting just two of 11 shots.

"We had open looks," said Krzyzewski. "We rely on three- point shooting and we're five for 22. I'm glad my guys took them and I didn't think they were bad.

"But we needed to shoot a better percentage."

West Virginia (26-10) outrebounded the Blue Devils 47-27, including 19-7 on the offensive end.

"Going into halftime we were only down five, and we knew we could play a lot better than we did," said Mazzulla. "We wanted to play our style of basketball in the second half."

BUSY DAY

In other games, Midwest Region third seed Wisconsin advanced to the round of 16 by routing number 11 Kansas State 72-55 behind 25 points from sophomore guard Trevon Hughes.

Xavier, seeded third in the West, bounced number six Purdue 85-78 behind 18 points each from C.J. Anderson and Drew Lavender.

Midwest Region top seed Kansas held number 8 Nevada-Las Vegas to 27 percent shooting and beat the Runnin' Rebels 75-56 in Omaha, Neb. as the Jayhawks reached the round of 16 for the 25th time in the proud history of the program.

South number three Stanford got a basket from Brooks Lopez with 1.3 seconds left in overtime to beat number six Marquette, 82-81; East number four Washington State got 18 points from Derrick Low and beat number five Notre Dame 61-41; and South number five Michigan State beat number four Pittsburgh 65-54.

(Editing by Ed Osmond)