Duke crashed out of the men's NCAA tournament in the most dramatic of fashions Saturday night in a 70-67 loss to Houston in the national semifinal.
After leading by as many as 14 points in the second half, the Blue Devils suffered an epic Final Four collapse and made zero field goals in the final three minutes, hurting themselves with sloppy inbounding plays down the stretch. Houston, on the other hand, went on a 9-0 run to close out the game.
There was, however, a key moment when the Blue Devils could have taken the late lead despite their offensive woes.
On Duke's penultimate possession, Flagg had the ball down one with under 20 seconds remaining and drove into the paint going one-on-one against a Houston defender. He managed to create some space and got up a jumper on a clean look, but it fell just short. Houston would go on to sink two free throws and walk away with the stunning 70-67 win.
Houston gets the stop! pic.twitter.com/CtKxr8dkWO
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) April 6, 2025
Flagg opened up about his potential game-winning shot in a postgame presser:
"Yeah I mean, this is the play Coach drew up," Flagg said. "Took it into the paint, thought I got my feet set, rose up, left it short obviously. But I mean, it's a shot I'm willing to live with in this scenario. Went up on the rim, trust the work that I put in."
Flagg added that he thought his team could have had better communication and execution late in the game but praised Houston for staying tough and resilient in the big moments. Flagg put up 11 of Duke's last 15 points and was the only Duke player to make a bucket in the last 13 minutes.
"It was an incredible season," continued Flagg. "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."
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Cooper Flagg Broke Down His Potential Game-Winning Shot in Duke's Loss to Houston.
