DALLAS – Duke spotted Houston the first eight points, settled in, and led for the entire second half.

Now, the Blue Devils are a win away from reaching the Final Four.

Fourth-seeded Duke beat No. 1-seed Houston 54-51 on Friday night in the Sweet 16 at American Airlines Center.

Duke (27-8) will play the closest thing this tournament has to a Cinderella team, which is also the ACC champion. N.C. State beat Marquette 67-58 in the earlier game on Friday night, the 11th-seeded Wolfpack continuing its miracle run that started with five wins in five days in the ACC tournament.

The first half was a knock-down, drag-em-out game in terms of a defensive slugfest; the second half is when both teams found their scoring touches. Both teams were well under 1.0 points per possession in the first half; in the first 11½ minutes of the second half, Duke’s ppp was 1.46 and Houston’s was 1.25.

It slowed as the tension grew. Duke’s lead went to 50-46 when Kyle Filipowski made a shot through contact with 5:17 left, and clutch mid-range jumpers by Tyrese Proctor and Jeremy Roach meant it was a 52-46 lead with 1:14 left.

Houston (32-5) got a three-point play by Emanuel Sharp with 48 seconds left. Duke came up empty on a possession, and the Cougars got a couple of shots on the game's last full possession but couldn't score.

The tenor of this game changed with about seven minutes left in the first half. That was when Houston led 16-10 and Jamal Shead, the Big 12 player of the year, landed awkwardly and crumpled on the baseline after a layup attempt. He was grabbing at his right ankle and, after play was stopped, gingerly walked off the court, eventually hopping his way down the tunnel with assistance from staff.

Without Shead, Houston was missing its best defensive player and needed to turn the keys of its offense over to L.J. Cryer, a Baylor transfer. Cryer hit several big shots in the second half to keep Duke from creating more separation than what seemed like a 4-6-point lead for most of the time.

Houston threw the first punch and it resonated so much that Jon Scheyer took a timeout after 106 seconds. Jeremy Roach turned the ball over on Duke’s first two possessions, and the third one saw a missed shot. The Cougars scored on each of their first three possessions, then came the timeout, and Houston got a stop and another score to lead 8-0.

Duke settled in after that. A Kyle Filipowski 3-pointer off an offensive rebound broke the seal on Duke’s scoring, and he hit another one with 5:41 left in the first half that made it a 16-13 Cougars lead.

A 7-0 Blue Devils run, four of those points by Jared McCain, put Duke up 23-20 near the end of the first half.

Houston started the game making five of its first eight shots; it finished the first half making 5 of 21, and that was with a banked-in floater by Cryer at the buzzer that sent the game to halftime with Duke leading 23-22.