David Meets Goliath in Duke-Butler Championship Showdown

The Little Engine that Could is still chugging -- and it's about to run into a big, Blue Devil-sized hill.

Fifth seed Butler and No. 1 Duke will square off in the NCAA men's basketball national championship game Monday, where the North Carolina team will try to win its first championship in nine years and the Butler Bulldogs will try for their first in the team's history.

Butler opened Saturday night play by taking down Michigan State, beating another top-notch squad after besting No. 1 seed Syracuse and No. 2 seed Kansas State, both favorites to advance to the Final Four, earlier in the tournament.

The tiny Indiana university's superstar Gordon Hayward dumped in 19 points in the win for the school with an enrollment of 4,200 whose Cinderella story has become a modern-day "Hoosiers" story of winning big against even bigger odds.

The final score in the "Hoosiers" flick? 42-40. The actual Milan final score: 32-30. And Butler's take-down of the Spartans -- 52-50.

Butler channeled the win-at-all-costs spirit of the "Hoosiers" players, shutting down two of MSU's biggest offensive weapons, Durrell Summers and Korie Lucious and forcing the Spartans into 16 turnovers.

The Bulldogs also held MSU to zero fast break points and outrebounded them 11-8 on the offensive glass.

In the championship game, Butler will meet the tournament's lone successful 1 seed, the Duke Blue Devils, who crushed No. 2 West Virginia to win their half of the bracket Saturday night.

The Blue Devils shot the lights out from beyond the arc, as guards Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler combined for 44 points in the lopsided 78-57 victory over the Mountaineers.

Duke center and 7-footer Brian Zoubek was trouble for the Mountaineers from the game's start, as WVU had no match for his size in the paint and allowed Zoubek 10 rebounds.

WVU star Da'Sean Butler finished with only 10 points -- 7 below his average -- in the Mountaineers' loss, which saw him exit the game with nine minutes left in the second half after suffering an injury to his left knee.

The Duke-Butler matchup, played in Butler's hometown of Indianapolis, will air Monday night on CBS.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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