ANAHEIM, Calif. — Call it the tomahawk slam heard around the college basketball world.
That was Arizona’s Derrick Williams, a 6-foot-8, 241-pound springy sophomore, flying over Duke senior Kyle Singler (6-8, 230) for a jamming good time Thursday night, punctuating a rollicking 93-77 Wildcats’ victory that sent the defending national champion and West Regional’s top seed packing.
Arizona faces Connecticut on Saturday. The winner gets a ticket to the Final Four. Quicker to the ball and more athletic, the Wildcats outscored Duke 55-33 in the second half.
“If we win Saturday, we’ll go down as one of the best Arizona teams,” said Williams, who finished his monster night with 32 points and 13 rebounds. “The Elite Eight is great, but we want more than that.”
Duke players became flat-footed spectators as Williams buried all Blue Devils’ hopes with his throwdown over Singler, the 2010 Final Four most outstanding player. Arizona was up 77-63 with 6:50 to go and in control.
“Williams is a superb player,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “He’s as good as anybody we’d played, or as I should say, better than anybody we played.”
A fifth seed, Arizona (30-7) came out of a lightly regarded Pac-10 Conference and had not been given much of a chance to hang with an experienced Duke team (32-5) that wanted to make Krzyzewski college hoops’ all-time winner on another title chase. He needs three more wins to pass Bob Knight.
That will have to wait until November.
“We came out in the second really revved up,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said. “We were hitting on all cylinders. And our rebounding (40-27 final edge over Duke) really gave us an advantage.”
Arizona trailed 44-38 at the half but Williams, a future high NBA lottery pick as soon as this summer, controlled the game and became an instant household name to those along the East Coast that rarely stay up late enough to watch telecasts of Pac-10 action.
“With Williams, he gives a team confidence, that confidence,” Krzyzewski said. “He’s a clean, beautiful player, a really unique player. He just gives them a presence.”
Williams tied a school record for most points in an NCAA Tournament game.
“Coming in, he was a good player,” Singler said. “He did a good job of making plays. He really hurt us on the defensive end, and on the offensive boards.”
Arizona was down by six points at the break and, Krzyzewski said, credit Williams for keeping it that close. “We thought we could be up by double figures in the first half, but Williams scored 25 points and kept them close.”
“(Williams) gave us a chance,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said.
Getting to play in Pac-10 country, Arizona came out after the break like it was the team up by six. The Wildcats chased down loose balls, won up-for-grabs rebounding battles and held their ground when Singler tried to work underneath with power moves.
A pull-up jumper from the key by sophomore guard Lamont Jones evened it at 53-53 and then, after a Duke miss, Jamelle Horne, the only senior on a rebuilt Arizona roster, swished a 3-pointer from the top of the key for a Wildcats’ lead that really got the crowd going. Jones scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half.
“Coming out in the second half we just didn’t play good basketball,” said Singler, who drew the unenviable assignment of trying to check Williams. “It’s very disappointing. We just didn’t get our hands on the ball.”
Arizona needed to tighten up its defense in the second half. Duke shot 52.9 percent in the opening 20 minutes, with Singler and freshman guard Kyrie Irving finding seams and shots for a combined 10-for-15 shooting. Mission accomplished. Duke hit just 37.5 percent after the break.
“They did a great job of clogging the paint,” said Duke All-American Nolan Smith, who went just 3-for-14 from the field.
Irving, who missed most of the season with a toe injury, finally got his chance to shine in the NCAA Tournament and did not disappoint. He did all he could, leading the Blue Devils with 28 points.
Irving and Singler combined for 16-of-26 shooting. The rest of the team went 11-for-32.
