Defending national champion Duke assumed its rightful place in the next round, but not without struggling.

Kent State is simply on the country's longest roll.

Both booked spots in the NCAA tournament's round of 16 Saturday.

No. 1-seeded Duke needed a 20-6 game-closing run to rally past eighth-seeded Notre Dame 84-77 in the South Regional.

Kent State, seeded 10th, owns the country's longest winning streak -- 20 games -- after knocking off second-seeded Alabama 71-58 in the South Regional.

South

Duke 84, Notre Dame 77

All-American guard Jason Williams, just 5-for-18 from the field, sank four straight late free throws for Duke (31-3).

The Blue Devils were led by freshman Daniel Ewing's career-high 18 points and six rebounds.

David Graves and Matt Carroll each scored 20 for Notre Dame (22-11), which led 71-64 with about 6 minutes left.

Kent St. 71, Alabama 58

Trevor Huffman scored 20 points and Antonio Gates had 18 as the Mid-American Conference champions advanced to a regional semifinal for the first time.

The 6-foot-5, 240-pound Gates had 10 points as Kent State (29-5) built a 36-24 halftime lead.

Rod Grizzard led Alabama (27-8) with 17 points, but most came after the game was out of hand.

Indiana 76, NC Wilmington 67

Jared Jeffries scored 20 of his 22 points in the second half for fifth-seeded Indiana (22-11), which was outrebounded 35-27.

Brett Blizzard scored 29 points for 13th-seeded UNCW, which upset No. 4 Southern California in the first round.

Midwest

Kansas 86, Stanford 63

Kirk Hinrich scored 15 points despite playing on a sprained left ankle as the top-seeded Jayhawks (31-3) opened the game with a 15-0 run and romped past eighth-seeded Stanford (20-10).

Oregon 92, Wake Forest 87

A trio of players accounted for all but 11 of second-seeded Oregon's points: Luke Jackson scored 29, Luke Ridnour 28 and Frederick Jones 24.

The Ducks (25-8) have two straight NCAA victories after going without any since 1960.

Craig Dawson scored 20 points for seventh-seeded Wake Forest (21-13).

East

Kentucky 87, Tulsa 82

Tayshaun Prince scored a career-high 41 points. Kentucky's lone senior starter went 14-for-21 from the field for the fourth-seeded Wildcats (22-9) against 12th-seededTulsa (27-7).

West

Arizona 68, Wyoming 60

Luke Walton, son of Hall of Famer Bill, hit a couple of one-handed push shots in the clutch, and finished with 21 points and nine assists for the third-seeded Wildcats (24-9).

Josh Davis and Marcus Bailey each scored 17 for 11th-seeded Wyoming (22-9).