SAN ANTONIO — Houston foreshadowed the story of the game on its first scoring possession.
Emanuel Sharp launched his patented high-arching triple from 25 feet but couldn't connect. Because of switching on the play, junior guard Tyrese Proctor was on Houston center J’Wan Roberts, who came away with the offensive rebound.
As they say, the best 3-point shot is off an offensive rebound. Roberts found veteran Cougar guard LJ Cryer on the right wing, who buried the first of his six triples on the evening.
Kelvin Sampson's teams are known for their elite defensive ability, and the pressure the Cougars play with makes the opposition extremely uncomfortable. But this year, the difference has been its offensive prowess — particularly from deep and on the glass.
Following the performance Saturday, Houston is No. 1 in the country in 3-point percentage and 10th in offensive rebound rate. Yes, the late-game execution and missed free throws hurt the Blue Devils in their 70-67 loss, but failing to clear the defensive glass and giving Houston open looks paved the way for the Cougar comeback.
Duke head coach Jon Scheyer tried to fix the Roberts problem throughout the entire first half, switching out bigs Maliq Brown and Patrick Ngongba II — which did help starting center Khaman Maluach get rest. But despite the six-inch height advantage for Maluach on Roberts, he could not ever seem to get comfortable on the defensive end. Roberts had four offensive rebounds in the first half — Maluach did not record a board in the game — and continued to provide second chances for his teammates throughout the contest.
For the majority of the game, the Duke offense played particularly well against a pesky Houston defense. With its offball screens, re-screening for guards Tyrese Proctor and Kon Knueppel and the connectivity that has defined this team’s season thus far, the Blue Devils counteracted the pressure through their well-executed sets.
Despite that, the team entered halftime up only six after three triples in the final two minutes from Cryer and Milos Uzan. Houston shot only 37.7% from the field but 10-of-22 from deep.
“We had some really uncharacteristic communication breakdowns with him to give [Cryer] some open looks,” Scheyer said. “Once a guy like that sees it go in, he's been in this moment before, a heck of a competitor, a big-time scorer.”
And after multiple Houston attempts to cut the game close — bolstered by Cryer heroics from deep — it looked as though Duke would be able to gain separation. Sion James cut twice to the basket for easy finishes off of double teams, and two Cooper Flagg free throws gave Duke a 56-42 lead.
However, on Houston’s next possession, friendly fire between James and Flagg allowed Joseph Tugler to come up with an offensive rebound and kick it out to Sharp for a three. For everything that Roberts did in the first half, Tugler replicated in the second. He had five offensive rebounds in that half and was the force that kept the Cougars’ furious comeback attempt possible.
“We could talk about not scoring down the stretch. For me it's our defense. We gave up 42 points in the second half,” Scheyer said. “I thought the last segment to close the half was big. We gave them four threes and then some uncharacteristic plays we probably made. They hit some tough shots. 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.”
On offense, Duke also struggled mightily. After a Flagg jumper with 10:31 left, the Blue Devils made only one field goal the rest of the way. That one was a cold-blooded Flagg corner triple after a timeout with 3:30 remaining that seemed to close out the deal, but once again, the defensive glass plagued Scheyer’s squad.
While Flagg had a highlight-reel block on the subsequent defensive possession, what went less noticed is Houston’s back-to-back offensive rebounds leading up to the block — and Sharp’s driving layup on his team’s third try of the possession. That gave Duke game pressure to deal with, and the Cougars pounced on the sliver of hope.
“They're a really good defensive team. I didn't think we were sharp in the last 10 and a half minutes on our execution as we had been for the first 10 minutes of the second half,” Knueppel said.
The two imperfections of the team — it’s hard to call them weaknesses with how well the group plays — reared their head Saturday night. Along with the occasional defensive rebounding lapses, the point guard-by-committee approach, while very dangerous with Duke’s crisp ball movement and depth, had its flaws at times — namely against the pressure of North Carolina or in this game, when the team needed a calming backcourt presence.
It’s been a memorable season for one of the best teams in college basketball history, and this should certainly not take away from that. For 30 minutes, the Blue Devils played a phenomenal game against an extremely tough opponent. Scheyer’s game plan against every tournament team worked extremely well, but Duke finished just a couple plays away from a championship game.
“Unfortunately it comes with the tournament. It's the most heartbreaking thing,” Scheyer said. “But I just try to explain to them, like, what they've done for Duke, our program, our University. It's been one of the best seasons ever ... I couldn't be more grateful in 2025 to have this connected of a group. It's hard to do.”
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Ranjan Jindal is a Trinity junior and sports editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.