PITTSBURGH — D.J. Burns Jr. knows he has a choice most nights. The North Carolina State forward can pout about the constant pushing and shoving he receives in the post — the cost of doing business when you're 6-foot-9 and 275 pounds — or he can battle back.
Burns said there was a time earlier in his basketball career when, if the calls didn't go his way, he would turn inward and focus on his disappointment.
Turns out taking the fight to the other team is way more fun.
The versatile big man with the decidedly under the rim game scored 24 points, including a go-ahead putback basket that ignited a 9-0 run in overtime, and the South Region's 11th-seeded Wolfpack beat 14th-seeded Oakland 79-73 in the second round of the NCAA tournament Saturday night.
Burns pounded his chest as he left the floor after two-plus hours of tussling in the lane and good-natured jawing with Oakland supporters, one of the reasons he nodded when N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts likened his team's victory to a boxing match.
"The fans, they're going to really come at you," Burns said. "Especially when they have a team like that with the capabilities that they have, you've got to talk. You've got to have some fun with it."
N.C. State (24-14) advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2015 by finally putting away 3-point specialist Jack Gohlke and the Golden Grizzlies (24-12) in the extra period.
The Wolfpack will play in the South Region semifinals Friday night in Dallas against either second-seeded Marquette (26-9) or 10th-seeded Colorado (26-10), with those teams meeting in a second-round game Sunday.
Two weeks ago, N.C. State was on the outside of the tournament bubble. Seven wins in 12 days later — including five in the Atlantic Coast Conference tourney to earn an automatic NCAA berth as the league champion — the Wolfpack are heading to Texas with a chance to send the program to its first Elite Eight since 1986.
"I think that's what March is about," Burns said. "Some teams got here by winning their conference just like us, and that doesn't mean they're a bad team."
The Wolfpack certainly aren't playing like one. While Burns is making a star turn, he's hardly doing it alone. All five N.C. State starters finished with at least 11 points Saturday, and Jayden Taylor came off the bench in overtime to hit a 3-pointer off a pass from Burns that gave the Wolfpack a 75-70 lead.
"I think one of the things if you look back at the seven games we won in a row, is I think that everyone has really stepped up in different ways," Keatts said, later adding, "That's kind of what makes us special."
N.C. State needed to be special to turn back the Golden Grizzlies.
Two days after stunning third-seeded Kentucky, a basketball blue blood from the Southeastern Conference, Horizon League champion Oakland — a commuter school 30 miles north of downtown Detroit — just missed becoming the first No. 14 seed to reach the Sweet 16 since the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 1997.
Trey Townsend, the Horizon League player of the year, had 30 points and 13 rebounds. Gohlke, who made 10 3-pointers against Kentucky, poured in six more 3s and finished with 22 points.
"I think people now hopefully will know that we're not in California and we're from Michigan now," Townsend said of the Auburn Hill program.
Townsend put Oakland in front for the first time with a three-point play with 2:49 to go in regulation, setting up a taut finish that had most of the fans inside a packed PPG Paints Arena pulling for the Golden Grizzlies.
That group included Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, the president of Oakland University who watched from the front row while holding a prop Cinderella-style glass slipper. It didn't quite fit.
Oakland had a chance at a last-second shot in regulation when it called timeout with 17 seconds to go. Kampe called a play designed to get Townsend in a one-on-one matchup. The Golden Grizzlies had trouble with N.C. State's pressure, turning it over with 1.3 seconds to go.
"I blame myself," Kampe said. "We got the ball with 17 seconds to go, and we didn't get a shot. There's only one person to blame for that. That's me, and I've got to sit here and live with that now."
N.C. State took advantage, moving in front for good on a Burns putback basket, and the Wolfpack ended the brief but spectacular tournament run by Gohlke. The graduate student who spent the previous five years at Division II member Hillsdale College, another Michigan school, had the majority of fans rising to their feet every time he launched one from deep.
"The legend of Jack Gohlke is going to go on," Kampe said, "and Oakland is going to be associated with that."
AP photo by Matt Freed / N.C. State's DJ Burns, Jr. shoots over Oakland's Chris Conway during an NCAA tournament second-round game Saturday in Pittsburgh.MIDWEST REGION
Creighton 86, Oregon 72 (2OT)
PITTSBURGH — Steven Ashworth and Ryan Kalkbrenner made 3-pointers in the second overtime, and Creighton edged past its former coach, Oregon's Dana Altman, to pick up a second-round win and move into the Sweet 16.
The long-ranger by the 6-1 Ashworth and a rare one by the 7-1 Kalkbrenner helped the third-seeded Bluejays (25-9) score the first 15 points of the second extra period to finally put away the 11th-seeded Ducks (24-12).
Ashworth scored 21 points, Trey Alexander added 20 and Kalkbrenner had 19 for Creighton, which will make its third Sweet 16 appearance in four years when it faces Tennessee in a Midwest Region semifinal Friday in Detroit.
It took balance, big shots, clutch free throws and poise for the Bluejays to overcome Oregon's 1-2 punch of Jermaine Couisnard and N'Faly Dante.
Couisnard, who had 40 points in the first round against South Carolina — his former school — had 32 this time, while Dante added 28 points and 20 rebounds.
Gonzaga 89, Kansas 68
SALT LAKE CITY — Gonzaga played a nearly perfect second half, busting open a back-and-forth game with a 15-0 run to pull away from Kansas for a win and extend its nation-best streak of trips to the Sweet 16 to nine.
Anton Watson shot 8 for 11 for 21 points on an afternoon when basically everyone in a navy jersey was a star, especially after halftime.
The fifth-seeded Bulldogs (27-7) made their first five 3-point attempts of the second half, not missing from long range until 1:30 remained and the game had long entered extended garbage time.
Coach Mark Few's team will make its regular trip to the second weekend of March Madness to play the winner of Sunday's game between No. 1 seed Purdue (30-4) and No 8 seed Utah State (28-6).
Nolan Hickman finished with 17 points for the Bulldogs, and big man Graham Ike had 15 points and nine rebounds, going toe to toe with Hunter Dickinson, who finished with a quiet 15 points for the fourth-seeded Jayhawks. Gonzaga's Ryan Nembhard who blew off a rough shooting night (1-for-6) and finished with 12 assists to become the program's career leader in that category.
During Gonzaga's 15-0 run, the Jayhawks (23-11) missed 10 straight shots and never got within single digits again.
WEST REGION
North Carolina 86, Michigan State 69
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — R.J. Davis scored 20 points to help North Carolina beat Michigan State, pushing the Tar Heels (29-7) into the Sweet 16 while keeping them unbeaten in March Madness against Spartans coach Tom Izzo, a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Harrison Ingram made five 3-pointers and scored 17 points for the West Region's top seed, which continued its NCAA success in its home state. North Carolina ran off 17 straight points during a 23-3 run over the last eight minutes of the first half to erase a 12-point deficit, then continued answering every push by the ninth-seeded Spartans (20-15) after halftime.
The Tar Heels improved to 5-0 in the tournament against Izzo, including victories in the 2005 Final Four and 2009 title game. And now they move on to the regional semifinals Thursday in Los Angeles, where they will face either 12th-seeded Grand Canyon (30-4) or No. 4 seed Alabama (22-11), with those teams playing a second-round game Sunday.
North Carolina also got a strong showing inside from Armando Bacot (18 points), who got into the paint to score, draw fouls or kick out against oncoming double teams. Ingram was on the receiving end of some of those, shooting 5-for-7 on 3-pointers to go with seven rebounds.
Tyson Walker scored 24 points for the Spartans.
Arizona 78, Dayton 68
SALT LAKE CITY — Caleb Love scored 19 points and second-seeded Arizona reached the Sweet 16 for the second time in three seasons, beating No. 7 seed Dayton in the second round.
The Wildcats (27-8), who also reached a regional semifinal in 2022 in coach Tommy Lloyd's first season, will face either No. 6 seed Clemson (22-11) or No. 3 seed Baylor (24-10); those teams play Sunday in the second round.
Keshad Johnson and Pelle Larsson each had 13 points and seven rebounds for Arizona. Larsson also had six assists, and Jaden Bradley scored 12 points off the bench. The Wildcats shot 53% from the field and made eight 3-pointers.
DaRon Holmes II had 23 points and 11 rebounds for the Flyers (25-8), who were denied what would have been their first Sweet 16 appearance since 2014. Koby Brea added 14 points and Kobe Elvis scored 13 for Dayton, which trailed by 17 points in the first half but stayed within striking distance nearly to the end.
EAST REGION
Iowa State 67, Washington State 56
OMAHA, Neb. — Tamin Lipsey scored 15 points, Iowa State cranked up the second-half pressure against Washington State, and the second-seeded Cyclones (29-7) marched into their seventh Sweet 16 with a victory over the seventh-seeded Cougars (25-10).
Curtis Jones added 14 points, and Keshon Gilbert and Milan Momcilovic had 10 apiece for the Cyclones, who made it to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament for the second time in three years. They will play Illinois in the East Region semifinals Thursday in Boston.
Jaylen Wells scored 20 points and Myles Rice had 13 for the Cougars, who were sent back to the Palouse still searching for their first Sweet 16 appearance since Tony Bennett was on the sideline as their coach back in 2008.
Illinois 89, Duquesne 63
OMAHA, Neb. — Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 30 points, Marcus Domask added 22, and No. 3 seed Illinois (28-8) made fast work of 11th-seeded Duquesne (25-12) to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2005.
Illinois hadn't made it through the first weekend of the NCAA tourney in eight previous appearances, a maddening run of frustration the Fighting Illini ended in resounding fashion.
Duquesne, which came in on a nine-game winning streak, had its first tournament appearance since 1977 end with its worst loss of the season that sent 65-year-old coach Keith Dambrot into retirement.
Jimmy Clark III scored 14 points and Fousseyni Drame had 13 for Duquesne.
The Dukes, who had scored fewer than 70 points in 21 of their previous 36 games, had said they would have to slow down an Illinois team averaging better than 84 per game to have a chance. The Illini led 50-26 at halftime and by 32 points midway through the second half.
Dambrot ends his career with a 529-305 record in 26 seasons, including 441-269 at Division I schools Duquesne, Central Michigan and Akron.