April 6 (UPI) -- Houston Cougars defenders harassed the Duke Blue Devils, holding the cast of NBA prospects to just one made field goal over the final 10:30 to steer a rabid Final Four comeback victory Saturday in San Antonio.
The Cougars, who trailed by as many as 14 points, went on an 11-1 run over the final 74 seconds to steal the 70-67 triumph at the Alamodome. Senior guard L.J. Cryer scored 26 points and made six 3-pointers for the Cougars.
"No one ever loses at anything, as long as you don't quit," Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson said on the CBS broadcast. "If you've quit, you've lost."
The Cougars (35-4), who extended their national-best 18-game winning streak, will face the Florida Gators (35-4) in the title game Monday in San Antonio.
The Blue Devils (35-4) outshot the Cougars 39.6% to 37.7%. They also held a 42-31 edge in rebounding, but collapsed in clutch moments against the top-ranked Cougars defense.
"We are just resilient," Cryer said. "We had a game like this earlier in the year, the Kansas game, it reminded me of that game. It's never over. As long as their is time on the clock, we have to continue to fight. We kept believing and we got it done."
National Player of the Year Cooper Flagg and the Blue Devils dissected the Cougars defense early on with pinpoint passing and hypnotic rotations.
They went on a 13-3 run to take an 18-9 lead 11 minutes into the game. They added another 13-4 surge to push their advantage to a dozen and led 34-28 at the break.
The Blue Devils made 41.4% of their first-half attempts. The Cougars made just 31% of their first-half shots, but stayed in the ...
