DALLAS — The Duke basketball team survived a tough, hard-fought Sweet 16 game against Houston on Friday night in American Airlines Center, emerging with a 54-51 win to advance to Sunday's Elite Eight.

The Blue Devils (27-8) struggled to put the Cougars away before a key bucket from its senior starter provided the necessary cushion. It sets up another meeting with rival NC State, this one to decide a spot in next week's Final Four in Phoenix.

Kyle Filipowski led the Blue Devils in points (16), rebounds (9) and taunts to the Houston-heavy crowd.

Houston hounds Duke inside early

The Blue Devils heard all the questions about whether or not they were tough enough to hang with the rough-and-tough Cougars. Early on, the answer as an emphatic no.

Houston pounded the Duke defense inside early and had a 6-0 lead before two minutes of game time had expired. The Blue Devils settled in a bit after that, but the Cougars had sent the message.

Blue Devils take advantage of Jamal Shead's injury

The Big 12 Player of the Year, and one of the finalists for just about every national player of the year award, Jamal Shead is the engine that drives the Houston Cougars. That's why, when he went down with a severely sprained ankle with 6:38 left in the first half, it turned the tide of the game in Duke's favor.

Houston held a 16-10 lead at the time of Shead's injury. From there, the Blue Devils outscored the Cougars 13-6 and took a one-point lead into halftime. This, despite Duke turning it over nine times in the first 20 minutes, which Houston turned into 10 points on the other end of the floor.

Shead did not start the second half for the Cougars.

Cougars don't go away

Even without Shead, the Cougars refused to let the Blue Devils run away with it.

Filipowski pumped up the crowd after hitting a big 3-pointer over J'Wan Roberts to increase Duke's lead to four, but Roberts continued to attack Duke's defensive interior, putting Ryan Kelly, Mark Mitchell and Filipowski in foul situations.

It wasn't until 5:17 remained in regulation that either team reached the 50-point mark for the game, which came courtesy a Filipowski finish while being fouled. He flexed to the Blue Devils bench afterward.

Can't kill the Roach

The seasoned veteran Jeremy Roach had perhaps the biggest play of the game to put the Blue Devils into the win column.

With neither team able to get much traction for a few minutes, Roach — the last remaining starter from Duke's 2022 Final Four team — drove into the paint, pump faked and hit a mid-range jumper to put the Blue Devils ahead 54-48 with 1:13 left in the game.

It was enough to be the separation between victory and defeat, and pushed Duke into another matchup with ACC rival NC State for a spot in the Final Four.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Duke basketball clips Houston in NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16