What had been a dream season ended in nightmarish fashion for the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday night in the Final Four.
Up by double digits in the second half against the Houston Cougars, Duke faded and Houston charged to an improbable 70-67 win.
It was the last two minutes that defined the game, with the Cougars outscoring the Blue Devils 13-3 in those final two minutes of the contest.
Not even another impressive statline from freshman phenom and Newport native Cooper Flagg, nor a six point lead with just over one minute left, was enough to insulate Duke from the spirited and ultimately successful comeback that Houston conjured through sheer will.
The nation’s top defense swarmed the Blue Devils with a full court press, and sharp shooting from Houston’s appropriately named Emanuel Sharp provided nine straight points for the Cougars down the stretch.
Duke made just one field goal, a 3-pointer from Flagg, in the final 10 and a half minutes of the game.
A missed one-and-one free throw from Duke junior guard Tyrese Proctor didn’t help the Blue Devils’ cause when up by just one point with 20 seconds left, nor did a highly questionable over-the-back call on Flagg during the ensuing rebound. That effort from Flagg looked like a legal play while being boxed out, and was an awfully soft foul call given the amount of contact the referees had allowed up to that point in the national semifinal.
The foul gave Houston senior forward J’Wan Roberts a chance to tie and then take the lead from the free throw line. Though shooting less than 60 percent from the line during his career at Houston, Roberts stepped up and made both to give the Cougars a lead they would never relinquish.
To be sure, the game did not hinge on a single call from the referees, nor any particular missed shot from Duke. Neither Proctor’s miss at the line nor Flagg’s jumper that came up short in the final ten seconds determined Duke’s fate.
It was the totality of those two minutes, and the unyielding surge from Houston, that sent the Cougars to Monday night’s championship and sent the Blue Devils home two wins short of their ultimate goal.
And while those two minutes may have defined the game, they shouldn’t define the season for the Blue Devils. The conversation may shift in some circles to what the talented team did not quite achieve, but Duke coach Jon Scheyer was quick not to lose sight of what the group has achieved throughout the season.
“I’m not about to hang our head,” Scheyer told CBS in a postgame interview. “I mean, this is part of it. You gotta handle the wins, and you gotta handle the losses too.”
Scheyer told CBS he “couldn’t be more proud” of his players and called their season, which included a first place finish in the Atlantic Coast Conference during the regular season along with an ACC Tournament championship, “a magical ride.” That ride included four NCAA tournament wins, multiple player of the year awards for Flagg, and a 35-4 final record that fell just two wins short of a national championship.
It also included an unprecedented experience for the state of Maine. Courtesy of Flagg, Maine people have been treated to a March Madness like no other, with one of our own at the center of the action. He has been living out a dream, and redefining a sense of what’s possible for other Maine kids along the way.
“It was an incredible season,” Flagg said during a postgame press conference after the loss to Houston. “Incredible people, incredible relationships that I’m going to have for the rest of my life. Didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but still an incredible year.”
