SAN ANTONIO – One more time, Duke built a lead and walked a tightrope through some late-game drama.
And this time the Blue Devils couldn’t survive.
The Blue Devils blew what was a nine-point lead with 125 seconds left and lost 70-67 to Houston on Saturday night in the Final Four at the Alamodome.
Houston (35-4) will play Florida on Monday night in the national championship game. The Gators beat Auburn 79-73 on Saturday night in the early game, getting 34 points from Walter Clayton Jr. and overcoming an eight-point halftime deficit.
Houston scored on 11 of 13 possessions bridging halftime. But Duke (35-4) scored at a high clip too, with 27 points on 14 possessions around the same general timeframe.
The Blue Devils extended the lead to 14 on a couple of occasions in the second half.
Houston came back with a 10-0 run — the first kill shot allowed by Duke since its loss at Clemson on Feb. 8 — to cut the deficit to four.
Coming out of the under-4 media timeout, Tyrese Proctor made a couple of free throws to stop the run. On Duke’s next possession, Cooper Flagg drained a 3-pointer — putting him at 25 points — to push the lead back to nine.
Houston never went away. Emanuel Sharp’s 3-pointer with 32.4 seconds left made it a 67-64 game.
That was followed by a turnover on an in-bound, a missed 3-pointer, and a follow dunk by Joseph Tugler.
Proctor was fouled and clanged a free throw off the back of the rim; Flagg was whistled for an over-the-back foul and J’Wan Roberts made a couple of free throws to give Houston a lead.
Duke’s play, down by one, went to Flagg in the middle of the lane, rising up for a mid-range jumper.
It hit the front of the rim; Duke’s season, all of a sudden, was hanging by a thread.
L.J. Cryer made two ensuing free throws and Proctor’s desperation heave was off the mark as the buzzer sounded.
Flagg made a 3-pointer at the 14:40 mark of the first half, his first bucket of the game, to give Duke an 8-6 lead. The Blue Devils didn’t trail until there were 19 seconds left.
Houston started the game 3-for-17 shooting, but too many of those were second or third shots of possessions.
When Duke started securing rebounds after the first misses, the Blue Devils created some separation in the first half. They scored on back-to-back possessions three times in a span of less than five minutes, which staked Duke to an 18-9 lead about halfway through the first half.
The end of the first half left a poor taste in Duke’s mouth — and that was in spite of Duke scoring 12 points in the last four minutes to lead 34-28 at halftime.
That’s because Houston, after scoring 15 points on its first 25 possessions of the first half, scored on each of its last five possessions entering halftime. That was made worse for Duke by the last three of those scores being a couple of Cryer 3-pointers sandwiching a Milos Uzan 3-pointer.
Duke started the lineup that’s been its regular lineup since December; the Blue Devils are 27-2 when Sion James, Proctor, Kon Knueppel, Flagg and Khaman Maluach are the starters.
Former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was in attendance, his first time at an NCAA tournament game since his retirement. The Blue Devils are 9-4 with him in the crowd.
