For much of Saturday night’s second semifinal between top seeds Duke basketball and Houston, it was the Blue Devils who found themselves in control. Duke got the better shots, generated the better possessions, and held a comfortable lead even in what was a game that was being played at Houston’s pace and style.
Unfortunately for Duke, it wasn’t able to keep that up for the full 40 minutes. Houston ended the game on an improbable 25-8 run to storm back and knock off Cooper Flagg and the Blue Devils in one of the most shocking comebacks that you’ll ever see.
Duke’s offense went completely cold in the second half. A 3-pointer by Flagg with about three minutes to go was the only Blue Devil field goal in the final 10 and a half minutes of this game as the Houston defense amped up and shut Duke down. However, that isn’t what head coach Jon Scheyer blames for the loss, according to Jeff Borzello of ESPN.
“We could talk about not scoring down the stretch,” Scheyer said after the Duke loss, per Borzello. “For me, it’s our defense. We gave up 42 points in the second half. That’s what carried us in the first half. For me, as I reflect in the moment, I look at our defense. That was disappointing. Even if we’re not scoring, usually we get stops to get separation.”
There were plenty of moments where Houston could have folded over and quit, as it looked like Duke was the superior team athletically and schematically. However, the Cougars did what they have done all season. They fought, battled, found solutions and chipped away at a once insurmountable lead.
Eventually, Kelvin Sampson and company had dragged Duke into a tight game, a place where the Blue Devils didn’t have a lot of experience this season. In the end, that mettle won out.
“Houston is a team that doesn’t quit,” Scheyer said after the Duke basketball loss. “I mean, they’re never going to stop. So my messaging throughout the whole way with the team was, understand this team doesn’t go away. So no lead is safe with them.”
Now, the favorite to cut down the nets is out, and instead it will be either Florida or Houston celebrating after Monday night’s title game in San Antonio. The Cougars and the Gators are two of the hottest teams in the country, so it should be a good battle between two elite teams to see who comes out as the last team standing this season.
No matter who it is, Duke will feel like it let one slip away with this second half collapse in yet another Final Four heartbreaker.
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