Purdue 72, Tennessee 66

Purdue big man Zach Edey went for a career-high 40 points along with 16 rebounds and one big block Sunday to muscle the Boilermakers into the program’s first Final Four since 1980 with a victory over Tennessee.

The 7-foot-4 center willed his way to a win in a back-and-forth thriller between the country’s top two players, edging out Tennessee’s All-American, Dalton Knecht, who finished with 37 points.

Fittingly for this showdown, Edey swatted away Knecht's layup as the Northern Colorado transfer drove to the basket while trailing by five with 33 seconds left, putting an end to the Vols' desperate comeback hopes.

Top-seeded Purdue (33-4) set aside last year’s grand disappointment — a first-round loss as a No. 1 seed — to book the trip to Glendale, Arizona. On Saturday, the Boilermakers will play North Carolina State in the national semifinals.

Tennessee (27-9), a No. 2 seed, was seeking its first Final Four, and Vols coach Rick Barnes was denied the second trip there of his 38-year career.

This was a scrapfest of a game played in front of an ear-splitting crowd packed with Purdue fans who made their way up from Indiana.

They were looking for history, and they got it — along with the game ball that Fletcher Loyer chucked about 20 rows into the stands when the buzzer went off.

With the school’s 87-year-old former coach, Gene Keady, sitting in the stands, this game at times looked like a dusty ol’ throwback.

Purdue fed the ball into Edey in the post, and though the grabby, swatty UT defense made some inroads — even blocking two of his shots — foul trouble piled up and Edey wore them down, but just barely. He finished 13 of 21 from the floor and lived at the foul line, where he went 14 for 22.

Meanwhile, the 3-point arc that was six years from coming into existence at Purdue’s last trip this far into the tournament was barely a factor for the Boilermakers. They went 3 for 15 from long range.

How close was this game, and this matchup? There were eight lead changes and six ties. More tellingly, with 5 minutes left, the teams were tied at 58, and both Knecht and Edey had scored 31 points on 12 field goals.

The game, though, would come down to three 3-point attempts. Knecht missed a pair of open looks, first with his team trailing by three at the 3:09 mark, then again on the next possession when down by six.

In between, Lance Jones spotted up from the corner for a 3 that gave Purdue a 66-60 lead and some breathing room.

The coup de grace came with Tennessee trying to carve into a 69-64 deficit. Knecht drove down the lane and went up, but Edey, playing in his 39th minute, scooted over and cleanly swatted the shot.

Knecht finished 14 of 31 from the floor. After making his first four 3-pointers, he went 2 for 12.

NC State 76, Duke 64

Bruising big man DJ Burns Jr. scored a season-high 29 points, DJ Horne scored 20 and 11th-seeded North Carolina State reached its first Final Four in four decades, beating Atlantic Coast Conference rival Duke in the South Region final.

NC State (26-14) is back in the national semifinals for the first time since the late Jim Valvano was sprinting around the court looking for someone to hug after winning the 1983 national title with an upset over Houston and Phi Slama Jama.

These Wolfpack head to Glendale, Arizona, next weekend with a nine-game winning streak. After losing their last four regular-season games, and seven of nine, they had to win five games in five days in the ACC Tournament, including a win over Duke in the quarterfinal round, just to get into the 68-team NCAA field. Now they will play Zach Edey and Purdue in the first national semifinal game, before defending champion UConn takes on Alabama.

Fourth-seeded Duke (27-9), which ousted top seed Houston in the Sweet 16 two nights earlier, missed out on its second Final Four in three seasons.

Soon after Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts was called for a technical foul with 8 minutes left, his team had a double-digit lead and was well on its way to becoming the seventh double-digit seed to make the Final Four since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

Jared McCain made both free throws for the technical that Keatts got after officials ruled a missed shot by Duke's Kyle Filipowski that went over the backboard and off the shot clock went off one of his players. Replays showed that while maybe there should have been a foul since Burns made contact with Filipowski's arm, the hand of the Wolfpack's 6-foot-9, 275-pound forward wasn't even close to the ball.

A minute later, Ben Middlebrooks had a steal that lead to a fast-break 3-pointer by Michael O'Connell. There was a foul called while the ball was in the air, so the Wolfpack kept possession and Burns made another nifty basket for a 53-42 lead.

O'Connell had six points, but finished with 11 rebounds and six assists.

McCain led Duke with 32 points, the freshman guard hitting 8 of 20 shots and making all 11 of his free throws. Jeremy Roach had 13 points while 7-foot center Filipowski had 11 points and nine rebounds before fouling out with 4:52 left and the Blue Devils already down eight.