Jeff Sheppard finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds for Kentucky (33-4), which rallied from a 17-point deficit in the final 9:34. The game erased the painful memories of the 1992 East Region final in Philadelphia, where Duke defeated the Wildcats 104-103 in overtime in arguably the greatest NCAA Tournament game ever played.

The Wildcats will play Stanford, the Midwest Region champion, next Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Kentucky became just the eighth team to reach three consecutive Final Fours and the first since Duke went to five in a row from 1988-92.

Sweet 16: ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Just about the time Duke looked vulnerable, the Blue Devils pulled out their "A" game.

Sloppy in building and then losing a 12-point lead, the top seed in the NCAA South regional looked like a national title contender Friday night in pulling away to an 80-67 victory over Syracuse.

Elton Brand, who had 20 points and 14 rebounds, led a 19-3 run the Blue Devils put together after missing 11 of their first 13 shots in the second half to give the heavy underdog Orangemen hope for an upset.

Second Round: Roshown McLeod scored 22 points as top-seeded Duke used two key momentum swings to record a 78-73 victory over eighth-seeded Oklahoma State in an NCAA Tournament second-round Midwest Region game at Rupp Arena.

Trajan Langdon, who was scoreless in Friday's victory over Radford, added 17 points for the Blue Devils (31-3), who will play the winner of the New Mexico-Syracuse game in the South Region semifinals Friday in St. Petersburg, Florida.

First Round: Duke got the reception it expected -- Rupp Arena full of boos -- and produced the lopsided victory that everyone else expected.

Duke's man-to-man defense smothered Radford and Roshown McLeod led a balanced offense that helped the Blue Devils coast to a 99-63 victory Friday night in the first round of the NCAA tournament.