Deng, Duhon direct Duke

Luol Deng scored 19 points to earn MVP honors in the Blue Devils' win over Xavier.
ATLANTA (AP) -- The freshman gave an impassioned halftime speech, then backed up his words. The senior gave a lesson in defense, ignoring the stinging pain in his ribs.
Luol Deng and Chris Duhon.
The kid and old man.
Together, they carried the Duke Blue Devils back to the Final Four.
Deng made three huge plays in the waning minutes, Duhon shut down Xavier's big guns and Duke headed to San Antonio with a 66-63 victory Sunday in the Atlanta Regional.
"This has been one of my favorite teams," said Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski, heading to the Final Four for the 10th time in search of his fourth national championship.
With Deng and Duhon, it's easy to see why Coach K loves these Blue Devils.
Start with the freshman. Deng hit a 3-pointer off an inbounds pass that tied the score at 56. Then he corralled an offensive rebound and passed out to J.J. Redick, who swished a 3 and put the Blue Devils ahead for good with 2:55 remaining. Finally, Deng soared above the rim to tap back in a missed shot, giving the Blue Devils a five-point cushion.
Stepping up
Krzyzewski expected the freshman to come up big after the talk he gave at halftime, with his team trailing by two. Deng wound up scoring 19 points and being named MVP of the regional.
"Luol got very emotional," Krzyzewski said. "He was crying and he just stood up and expressed his feelings to the team, that we needed to play outside of ourselves. For a freshman to do that, I think it had a tremendous impact on our team."
Duhon, playing in pain since hurting his ribs in the ACC championship game, scored only six points. But, as usual, the point guard's contributions went far beyond anything on the stat sheet.
Lionel Chalmers led Xavier with 17 points, but made just 6-of-16 shots. His backcourt partner, Romain Sato, was held to 10 points on 2-of-10 shooting. Much of the time, Duhon was the guy in their face.
"Whatever player was hot, I put [Duhon] on, and he became not hot," Krzyzewski said. "The kid's a winner, and I was glad to be able to ride his bus."
The Blue Devils head to the Final Four as the only No. 1 seed still alive. Next up: Connecticut in the national semifinals Saturday.
"This is probably my favorite team since I've been at Duke," Duhon said. "It's an amazing feeling to go out and battle with these guys. I hope they enjoy it as much as I have."
End of the road
Xavier's remarkable run came to an end. The Musketeers stunned Saint Joseph's in the Atlantic 10 tournament and knocked off the second- and third-seeded teams in the Atlanta Regional. But they couldn't pull off the trifecta.
The seventh-seeded Musketeers also gave Duke everything it could handle. Over the course of 40 minutes, there were 12 lead changes and 11 ties, the margin between the teams never higher than six points.
But Xavier had never been this far in the NCAA tourney, and it showed in the closing minutes against postseason-savvy Duke, which improved to 10-1 in regional finals under Krzyzewski.
It didn't help when Anthony Myles, the Musketeers' best inside player, fouled out with 121/2 minutes remaining, having already contributed 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Myles picked up his fourth and fifth fouls just six seconds apart, the Musketeers failing to take him off the court before the refs did it for them. Myles hopped away in disbelief, then retreated to the bench, covering his face with a towel.
"We were trying to get him out," coach Thad Matta said. "I guess we were a little slow."