WASHINGTON – For Duke, there was no escaping this: Coach Bob Huggins has West Virginia playing tough man-to-man defense and hustling after every rebound.

Joe Alexander had 22 points and 11 rebounds, and No. 7-seeded West Virginia reached the NCAA tournament’s round of 16 in Huggins’ first season at his alma mater by beating second-seeded Duke 73-67 in the West Regional on Saturday.

West Virginia (26-10) limited Duke to 38 percent shooting and held a 47-27 edge on the boards. The Mountaineers also got 17 points from Alex Ruoff, and 13 points and 11 rebounds from reserve guard Joe Mazzulla, and advanced to face No. 3 Xavier or No. 6 Purdue in Phoenix on Thursday.

Every year from 1997 through 2006, Duke was a participant in the round of 16. Every single year.

It’s a stretch that featured three trips to the Final Four and the 2001 national championship. But now Mike Krzyzewski’s team is on a two-year drought, having bowed out in the first round in 2007.

After eking out a one-point victory over No. 15-seed Belmont in the first round, three-time national champion Duke (28-6) looked much better en route to a 34-29 halftime lead against West Virginia.

Wisconsin 72, Kansas State 55

OMAHA, Neb. – Wisconsin mixed in some finesse with its usual toughness, and now the Badgers are headed to the Midwest Regional semifinals.

Trevon Hughes matched his career high with 25 points, and third-seeded Wisconsin shut down Kansas State freshman star Michael Beasley n the second half of a 72-55 victory in the second round of the NCAA tournament Saturday.

Beasley scored 23 points in what might be his last college game, but he had only six after halftime.

The third-seeded Badgers (31-4), who set a school record for wins in a season, play either Georgetown or Davidson in the round of 16 next week in Detroit. Wisconsin heads to the Motor City with 12 straight wins and 25 victories in the last 27 games.

Kansas 75, UNLV 56

OMAHA, Neb. – Kansas made sure Blowout City lived up to its name one last time.

Capping off two days of mismatches in Omaha, the top-seeded Jayhawks pulled away from UNLV in the second half and romped to a 75-56 victory Saturday at the NCAA’s Midwest Regional, another emphatic team effort by a deep, talented group out to win the proud program’s first national title in 20 years.

Mario Chalmers led the way with 17 points, but he had plenty of help. Russell Robinson scored 13, Brandon Rush 12, Sherron Collins 10, Darrell Arthur 9 and Darnell Jackson 8.

Good luck trying to find the right player to stop.

Xavier 85, Purdue 78

WASHINGTON – If Purdue could have picked one or two players from Xavier to focus upon, then surely the Boilermakers would have had an easier time fulfilling their reputation as one of the best defensive teams in the Big Ten.

Purdue, however, discovered what many Atlantic 10 teams already know: The X-men are simply too balanced. Even if you find a way to stop a couple of them, two or three others are more than capable of taking over the offensive load.

C.J. Anderson and Drew Lavender each scored 18 points, Josh Duncan had 16, Stanley Burrell added 11 and two other Musketeers scored eight apiece Saturday in an 85-78 victory that carried Xavier into the semifinals of the West Regional.

The Musketeers (29-6) shot 54 percent in breaking the single-season school record for wins and setting up a meeting with seventh-seeded West Virginia, a surprise winner over Duke, on Thursday in Phoenix.

Washington State 61, Notre Dame 41

DENVER – Nobody shuts down Notre Dame big man Luke Harangody, the Big East’s Player of the Year. Washington State settled for slowing down the high-flying Fighting Irish.

Derrick Low scored 18 points and Kyle Weaver added 15 as the Cougars won a clash of styles, beating Notre Dame 61-41 in the second round of the East Regional on Saturday night.

The Cougars held Harangody to 10 points, half his average, and limited the Irish to half their scoring average, too.

Harangody got his usual double-double, his 19th, by also pulling down 22 rebounds, but he had to work extra hard for everything he got and he was flustered on the offensive end – double-teamed, banged and bumped every time he got his hands on the ball.

Stanford 82, Marquette 81

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Stanford coach Trent Johnson missed an amazing game.

Ejected for unsportsmanlike behavior in the first half, Johnson wasn’t around to see the Cardinal defeat Marquette 82-81 in overtime Saturday night in the NCAA’s South Regional on Saturday, advancing to the round of 16 for the first time since 2001.

Brook Lopez made a baseline leaner with 1.3 seconds left to win it for the Cardinal. Lopez, one of Stanford’s twin 7-footers, finished with 30 points, one shy of a career high. The bucket came on Mitch Johnson’s career-high 16th assist.

The Cardinal advanced to Houston, where they will face Miami or Texas.

Michigan State 65, Pittsburgh 54

DENVER – All this talk about brawn and brute force gets old. Drew Neitzel and Kalin Lucas let everyone know these Michigan State guys can dribble and shoot it, too.

The Spartans guards went on a late ballhandling and scoring spree to help Michigan State pull away from Pittsburgh for a 65-54 victory Saturday night in the South Regional.

Lucas and Neitzel combined for 21 of the final 25 points for the fifth-seeded Spartans to help them win a battle of the bullies – a rough-and-tumble game between two Rust Belt teams who brought their show to the Rocky Mountains.

Neitzel led the Spartans with 21 points, and Lucas finished with 19.

UCLA 53, Texas A&M 49

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Those UCLA Bruins keep finding more drama and ways to win in the closing seconds.

Darren Collison scored the go-ahead basket on a one-handed layin with 91/2 seconds remaining, Josh Shipp contested Donald Sloan’s final drive and top-seeded UCLA held on for a 53-49 victory over Texas A&M in the second round of the NCAA tournament Saturday night.

The Bruins (33-3) won their 12th in a row and will face Western Kentucky or San Diego next week in Phoenix.

Urged on by 17,600 pro-UCLA fans that made it seem like a home game, the Bruins rallied from a 10-point deficit in the second half.

Kevin Love had 19 points and 11 rebounds – his 21st double-double – and UCLA overcame the combined 3-of-14 shooting of Shipp and Russell Westbrook.

Sloan led the Aggies (25-11) with 12 points and Josh Carter added 10. A&M was trying to get back to the final 16 for the second straight year.

AP-ES-03-22-08 2359EDT