COL BKB: Villanova 77, Duke 54

BOSTON, March 27 (UPI) -- Scottie Reynolds polished off a large night for the Big East Thursday, leading Villanova to a 77-54 thrashing of Duke in the NCAA regional semifinals.

Third-seeded Villanova joined Big East rivals Pittsburgh and Connecticut in the Elite Eight and set up the possibility of five teams from that conference competing in the regional finals.

The Wildcats will play for the East Region title and a berth in the Final Four Saturday against Pittsburgh.

Big East regular-season champion Louisville will be in action Friday against Arizona and Syracuse will tangle with Oklahoma. They will be trying to keep alive the chance of one conference filling all four spots in the Final Four for the first time in the tournament's history.

Villanova built a three-point lead at the end of the first half and then crushed the second-seeded Blue Devils while limiting them to just 16 field goals for the entire game. Duke shot 26 percent from the floor and made only 5-of-27 attempts from 3-point range.

Reynolds scored 16 points and Dante Cunningham contributed 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Villanova (29-7) broke its single-season wins record set three years ago, the last time the Wildcats reached the Elite Eight.

Villanova and Pittsburgh met just once during the regular season and the Wildcats captured that one in Philadelphia 67-57.

Duke (30-7) got 15 points from Kyle Singler and 13 from Jon Scheyer, who made only 3-of-18 shots from the floor.