JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - California’s 3-point shooters were no match for Duke’s defense Sunday evening.

Duke’s coaches spent two days devising and implementing a plan to take
away the perimeter scoring from a Cal team that had three starters
shooting 40 percent or better from 3-point range.

It was time well spent. Led by guard Nolan Smith, Duke’s defense held
California to 3-for-12 (25 percent) from 3-point range in a 68-53
second-round NCAA tournament win Sunday at Veterans Memorial Arena.

DURHAM - With its 72-37 victory over Hampton on Saturday the Duke women's basketball team has now won 13 consecutive NCAA tournament games at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The No. 2 seeded Blue Devils (28-5) have been pretty strong at home this season.

N.C. State football player J.R. Sweezy has been suspended indefinitely after getting into a late-night fight with a shuttle bus driver in Mooresville last Thursday.

Sweezy, 20, was charged with misdemeanor assault and misdemeanor larceny, according to the Mooresville Police Department, after getting into a physical altercation with David Scott Magnuson and Nicholas Kaplan at 2:37 a.m. on March 18.

NEW ORLEANS -- Wake Forest struggled Saturday night when the Demon Deacons lost leading scorer Al-Farouq Aminu for all but six minutes of the first half because of foul trouble. That opened the door for Kentucky to blow the game open on the way to a 90-60 win.

Now, the Deacons will wait to find out whether they’ll be without the sophomore for all of next season. Aminu decided to pass on the NBA and return to Wake Forest this season, but with the Deacons headed for a rebuilding year, he may heed the call of the pros this summer.

NEW ORLEANS -- Ish Smith, streaking down the lane alone, went up for an authoritative dunk. The ball slammed off the heel of the rim and bounced into the other half of the court.

Two nights after Smith hit the overtime game-winner for Wake Forest, he couldn’t get a dunk to fall. Their emotional and physical reservoirs emptied, the Demon Deacons saw their season end in the second with a 90-60 loss to Kentucky on Saturday.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Just when it all seemed to be coming
together for N.C. State — the teamwork, the toughness, the second-half
offense – it all fell apart.

The Wolfpack, winners of six of its previous eight games, couldn’t
score, didn’t defend, and ended its season with a 72-52 blowout loss to
UAB in the second round of the NIT on
Saturday.

DURHAM -- Duke trailed Hampton, but not for long.

Hampton led No. 2-seed Duke by three points three minutes into Saturday's first round Women's NCAA tournament game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Though the Blue Devils raced from behind and recaptured their lead over the 15th-seeded Pirates, shutting down their outmatched opponent and capturing a 72-37 victory.

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- In retrospect, perhaps it’s a good thing
North Carolina point guard Larry Drew II didn’t realize that the
6-feet-9 guy standing in the way of his game-winner was the NCAA’s
all-time leading shot-blocker.

Because instead of over-thinking, as he admits to doing too often this
season, the sophomore drove the length of the court on instinct.

DURHAM -- Louisiana State’s women’s basketball team summoned its usual prickly defense and bottled up Hartford for a 60-39 victory in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - For the first time since the end of the regular season, Duke was able to breathe somewhat easily Friday night.

No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament are supposed to win easily over No.
16 seeds, and the Blue Devils did that in a 73-44, first-round defeat
of Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.