SAN ANTONIO – Who said this NCAA Tournament lacked upsets?
Saturday night produced a whopper.
Cooper Flagg and mighty Duke, the favorites of this No. 1-seeded Final Four, are going home early.
Houston pulled a shocker, rallying from 14 down in the final 8:17 to advance to Monday night’s national championship with a riveting 70-67 victory over the freshmen-led Blue Devils at a buzzing Alamodome.
J’Wan Roberts’ two free throws with 19.6 seconds left gave the Cougars the lead for good and after Flagg missed in the lane, LJ Cryer made two more.
Tyrese Proctor’s desperation heave didn’t come close and Houston players ran all over the floor celebrating the dramatic victory.
For so much of the night, it looked like Duke and its projected lottery pick freshmen were headed to the final.
They were in control. But, Houston never let go of the rope. It kept on chipping away.
Emanuel Sharp’s 3-pointer with 33.3 seconds to go make it a single possession game for the first time in the second half, and Houston stole the inbounds pass.
Joseph Tugler’s tip dunk cut it to one and Proctor missed the front end of a 1-and-1 at the other end. Flagg went over the back, sending Roberts to the line.
Cryer had 26 points to lead Houston and Sharp added 16.
Flagg, the presumptive No. 1 pick in June’s NBA Draft for years, had 27 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
For a large portion of the first half, Duke was treating Houston like its four previous tournament opponents. It was smothering them on the defensive end and getting easy looks at the other end.
It was a 12-point lead late in the opening stanza, when Houston began to heat up from deep.
It made its final 3-point attempts after starting 2-of-8, and only trailed by six at halftime, equaling Duke’s smallest lead at the break of the tournament.
The Cougars were fortunate to be close, considering they shot 31 percent from the field and were minus-four in the turnover department.
Cryer was their best player, notching 12 points and hitting three 3s.
The Duke freshmen were predictably productive.
Knueppel had 12 points and Flagg followed with eight points, four rebounds, two assists and two blocks as the Blue Devils more than doubled Houston in the paint, 16-6.
Going back to the first half, the Cougars hit 10 of 11 shots, but they couldn’t cut into the deficit.
Even when Duke missed, it made up for it on the offensive glass. Flagg started the second half by scoring inside and scored eight points in the first 4:52 of the period.
Once Houston finally began to miss, Duke stretched out the lead. It ballooned to 14 after Flagg went to the free throw line on back-to-back trips with 11:54 left.
Houston ripped off a 10-0 run to get within four. It had a chance to get even closer, but Cryer missed a mid-range jumper, Tyrese Proctor hit two free throws and Flagg hit a 3-pointer.
He then swatted a Tugler layup attempt out of bounds. It felt like that had snugged out the rally. Houston obviously had other ideas.