Duke 79, USC 69
PHILADELPHIA — Duke's been down this road before.
Jason Williams scored 28 points and Shane Battier added 20 points and 10 rebounds as Duke beat Southern California 79-69 Saturday night to advance to its 13th Final Four and its ninth under coach Mike Krzyzewski.
The opponent next weekend in Minneapolis will be very familiar — the Blue Devils will face Maryland for the fourth time this season. The Atlantic Coast Conference schools both won regional finals over teams from the Pac-10, with the Terrapins beating Stanford 87-73 in the West.
Duke (33-4) won two of the three games against Maryland, but each win was by 2 points, while Maryland's victory was by 11.
The Blue Devils are 9-1 in regional finals under Krzyzewski and the latest win has them back in the Final Four for the second time in three years.
Their last national championship came in 1992 and it was on the same trip as this year's run — the first and second rounds in Greensboro, N.C., the regionals in Philadelphia and the Final Four in Minneapolis.
The Trojans (24-10) were looking for their third Final Four berth and first since 1954.
Duke's two All-Americans, the senior forward Battier and the sophomore guard Williams, ended those dreams with two more great performances in the NCAA tournament.
Battier had at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in each of the four games, while Williams' 28 points against Southern Cal was one off his average over the first three games.
Battier and Williams combined for all but 10 of Duke's 43 first-half points as the Blue Devils took a 5-point lead.
Then each time the Trojans seemed ready to make a run, the Blue Devils had an answer.
Three times Southern Cal was within 7 points. The last two times Williams scored to put Duke back up by at least 9.
The final killer for the Trojans came from Duke freshman Chris Duhon, who finished with 13 points.
Sam Clancy, who led Southern California with 19 points, hit a turnaround with 5:47 left to make it 67-59. Battier missed a shot on the next possession but Duke kept the ball when a foul was called.
After taking the inbound pass, Duhon hit a 3-pointer from in front of the Duke bench to make it 70-59 with 5:17 to play. The Trojans were never closer than 8 points the rest of the way.
Mike Dunleavy added 11 points for Duke. David Bluthenthal had 17 points and 13 rebounds for the Trojans, while Brian Scalabrine added 13 points.