Villanova coach Jay Wright paced in front of his bench and yelled “Attack” to his players, and when the Wildcats finished attacking, there was nothing left of Duke in the NCAA tournament.
The Wildcats put together a scintillating eight-minute stretch at the start of the second half to establish control last night and went on to an overwhelming 77-54 victory over the Blue Devils at TD Banknorth Garden.
They advanced to the final of the NCAA East Regional tomorrow night against Big East rival Pittsburgh.
 The Philadelphia Inquirer
After some sour endings and near misses in its previous four trips to the third round in the NCAA tournament, No. 1 seed Pitt exorcised those demons from seasons past with a 60-55 victory against No. 4 seed Xavier last night at TD Banknorth Garden. With the victory, the Panthers (31-4) advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1974. They will play No. 3 seed Villanova, which defeated No. 2 seed Duke, 77-54, at 7:05 p.m. tomorrow.
The hero was Levance Fields, who converted a 3-pointer over Dante Jackson with 50.9 seconds remaining to give Pitt a 55-54 lead it would not relinquish.
Fields is not Pitt’s best 3-point shooter, but he always takes the big shots at the end of games. Fields made a winning 3-pointer to beat Duke at Madison Square Garden last season and made two more clutch 3-pointers in the waning moments when the Panthers beat Connecticut in February.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Craig Austrie’s smile is back. So is his jump shot. Both are welcome signs for a UConn men’s basketball team bent on continuing to roll through the NCAA tournament.
Austrie, the Huskies’ senior guard from Stamford, scored a team-high 17 points as top-seeded UConn held off No. 5 Purdue 72-60 before a docile crowd of 20,101 Thursday at the University of Phoenix Stadium.
“I love to see Craig Austrie smiling,” UConn guard A.J. Price said. “Tonight he brought that smile back out. He made a huge 3-pointer for us in the second half, was big on defense the whole game, made clutch free throws down the stretch.”
Connecticut PostÂ
B.J. Mullens is the latest “one then done” at Ohio State. The 7-foot Ohio State freshman said Thursday he would declare himself available for the NBA draft.
Mullens is the fifth Buckeyes player in the last three seasons to leave after playing one season.
The Columbus-area native came off the bench for 8.8 points and 4.7 rebounds a game. He shot 64 percent from the field to set a school freshman record. He started just two of the 33 games this past season for the Buckeyes, who lost to Siena in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Sports Illustrated
Davidson star Stephen Curry will meet with his father this weekend, then decide whether to stay for his senior season or enter the NBAÂ draft.
“I’m 50 percent in the middle. Every five minutes, I’m thinking one way, I’m thinking the next way,” the nation’s leading scorer said Wednesday, two days after the Wildcats’ season ended with a loss in the NIT. “I’m just playing mind games with myself right now.”
Curry said his dad, former NBA sharpshooter Dell Curry, has been gathering information about where he’d be drafted. Curry, who has been projected as a lottery pick in several mock drafts, said he will decide well before the April 26Â deadline.
International Herald Tribune
