SAN ANTONIO -- Inside the searing silence of the Duke locker room, the echo of a door slamming shut intermittently rippled through. Every time a player or staff member ducked into the adjacent coaches locker room, the bang of the door reverberated like a siren in a still night.

There's nothing to prepare a team for the emotional spiral that comes with squandering a six-point lead in the final 35 seconds. After Houston scored the game's final nine points in 33 seconds to stun Duke 70-67 on Saturday night in the Final Four, a hush accompanied the attempts for the Blue Devils to process it.

Players wandered quietly to grab a slice of pizza from one of the 10 boxes stacked high across a Powerade cooler. They stared down at their phones to avoid eye contact with the lingering media. One walk-on returned from the shower with tears in his eyes. Another wrote in a journal with a pencil.

They replayed how somehow a six-point lead could disappear in less than 20 seconds. But even after a spree of in-bounds failures, misses and mental gaffes, two key moments in the final 20 seconds from star freshman Cooper Flagg -- a foul and a miss -- capped the stunning meltdown.

Flagg's missed 12-foot jumper, with Duke trailing by one point, will be the play that will live forever in replays. Duke had a chance to take control of the game and stop the hemorrhaging, and it called a timeout with 17 seconds left. The Blue Devils cleared out for Flagg, who got an isolation matchup with Houston sixth-year senior J'Wan Roberts. Flagg pulled up from inside the lane and faded away from the outstretched arms of the 6-foot-8 Roberts. The shot caromed off the front rim.

"It's the play Coach drew up," Flagg said. "Took it into the paint. Thought I got my feet set, rose up. Left it short, obviously. A shot I'm willing to live with in the scenario."

There was no second-guessing the play or the look. It simply didn't go in.

"Cooper is the best player in the country, and when you get the best player in the country in the spot he likes, it's really as simple as that. We got exactly what we wanted," Duke senior Sion James said. "Sometimes shots go down; sometimes they don't. That one didn't."

Tougher to explain was Flagg's over-the-back foul on Roberts when Tyrese Proctor missed the front end of a one-and-one with 20 seconds remaining. Duke led 67-66 at the time, and Flagg got whistled for a foul on Roberts, who clearly had Flagg boxed out.

The validity of the call will long be debated on barstools at the Final Four, but Flagg put himself and Duke in a vulnerable position by appearing to hold down Roberts' left arm and getting whistled for it.

Roberts, a 63% free throw shooter, changed the game by making both ends of the one-and-one, pushing Houston to a 68-67 lead and setting the stage for Flagg's final foray.

For a program that holds a defiant image of grit and toughness, it's fitting that Houston's trip to the national title game featured a game-changing boxout. Kellen Sampson, the Houston assistant and son of Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson, broke out one of his father's folksy basketball sayings to sum up the moment.

"Discipline gets you beat more than great helps you win," Kellen Sampson said. "I've probably heard it a hundred million times growing up. Look, the more disciplined you are, the more that you can find yourself doing little tiny things that's going to win."

"A big-time free throw blockout was exactly what was needed," he added.

Regardless of any debate over the call, Flagg's foul put Duke in a suddenly unthinkable position. The Blue Devils went from a six-point lead with 34 seconds left to trailing by one at the 19-second mark. The foul was the final swing: up one to down one.

The key for Houston came from leaving Roberts alone on Flagg, something it didn't do early in the game. Flagg picked the Cougars apart with his passing, and they made an adjustment to let Roberts handle the matchup by himself.

"We said here at halftime we're going to trust J'Wan," Sampson said. "He's doing a heck of a job in his one-on-ones against Cooper. We're probably over-helping.

"You have the No. 1 defense in America for a reason. Trust him."

Houston's defenders acted their marauding selves all night, with the most jarring statistic in the box score that of Duke center Khaman Maluach failing to grab a rebound in more than 21 minutes of play and ending the night with a plus-minus of -20.

Roberts' final salvo was getting a tough contest on Flagg's potential game winner.

"I thought he did an awesome job of getting his hands up high enough that it wasn't an easy look," Sampson said of Roberts. "Some tough shots all night."

Flagg finished the contest with 27 points, shooting 8-for-19 from the field. He got little help, as Duke had just one field goal over the game's last 10:30. He rode back to the Duke locker room in a golf cart at 11:54 p.m., staring into space with a towel wrapped around his neck.

He entered the cone of silence suddenly facing the end of a season and likely a college career.

Three minutes later, Duke coach Jon Scheyer rode past with his wife next to him and athletic director Nina King sitting in the back. Duke had just coughed up the fifth-biggest lead in Final Four history. The loss will echo, just like that slamming door, long into the offseason.

"I keep going back, we're up six with under a minute to go," Scheyer said.

"We just have to finish the deal."

SAN ANTONIO -- Saturday's Final Four matchup between Duke and Houston seemed like another stop on the Blue Devils' march to a national championship, just another prelude to the looming Cooper Flagg and Duke coronation.

After Tyrese Proctor's free throw put Duke up by 14 points with 8:17 left in the second half, the inevitable seemed closer than ever. That was cemented when Flagg buried a 3 to extend the Blue Devils' lead to nine with three minutes remaining.

Except Houston's culture doesn't allow concessions.

"It ain't over because they still got time on the clock," Cougars guard L.J. Cryer said after the game.

Houston went on a 9-0 run in the final 35 seconds to win 70-67, shocking Duke and the Alamodome crowd to advance to Monday's national championship game against Florida.

Cryer led the way with 26 points and six 3-pointers, while Flagg had 27 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists in what will likely be his final college game. The Cougars, who advanced to the title game in 1983 and 1984, can win their first national championship.

Saturday night was a combination of a stunning Duke collapse and desperate Houston comeback.

After Proctor's free throw, Houston responded with a 10-0 run to shift the momentum. But Duke pushed the lead back to nine with 3:03 left on Flagg's corner 3-pointer. The Blue Devils didn't make another shot from the field.

"Houston is a team that doesn't quit," Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. "I mean, they're never going to stop. So my messaging throughout the whole way with the team was, understand this team doesn't go away. So no lead is safe with them."

Joseph Tugler committed a technical foul by reaching over the out-of-bounds line to knock the ball out of Sion James' hands with 1:14 left. Kon Knueppel hit the technical free throw, but instead of fouling Duke again, Houston played out the possession defensively. Tugler contested Knueppel's late shot clock layup, leading to Emanuel Sharp's 3-pointer with 33 seconds to cut the lead to 67-64.

In a sequence remarkably similar to Houston's comeback win over Kansas in January, the Cougars stole James' inbounds pass that led to Tugler's putback dunk with 25 seconds remaining.

"I think that one we sent Tyrese deep and it was Kon and Cooper," James said. "I had Cooper open, he had him sealed over the top and I just threw it too low. Big play at the time. And, honestly, probably a deciding play."

Houston's pressure defense had caused constant issues for Duke down the stretch, with Tugler's wingspan forcing James to make difficult inbounds passes or use timeouts.

"When they were inbounding the ball and it was almost a five-count, it gave me deja vu vibes. Like, this could happen again," said senior guard Mylik Wilson, comparing it to Houston's comeback win over Kansas when the Cougars rallied from down six with 10 seconds left to force double overtime. "Just keep playing hard and just trying to deny. And if they catch it, just try to up the pressure."

"I put JoJo on the ball," Sampson said. "We tried to deny. Encouraged him to throw it long because JoJo's wingspan is 7-6. I thought we could take everything over the top, force them to throw it east and west."

Proctor was sent to the free throw line, but missed the front end of a one-and-one. J'Wan Roberts boxed out Flagg, who was called for an over-the-back foul while going for the offensive rebound with 19.6 seconds left.

Roberts, who shot 3 for 8 from the free throw line in last year's Sweet 16 loss to Duke, went to the stripe and made both free throws to give Houston its first lead since the 15:25 mark of the first half.

"We didn't lose to Duke last year because of Jamal [Shead]'s ankle," Houston assistant Kellen Sampson said. "We lost because we didn't make free throws. We could have still beaten them last year if we'd have stepped up and made big free throws."

Duke's late-game issues were one of the big storylines of the first month of the season. The Blue Devils lost to Kentucky and Kansas in November, failing to execute down the stretch. They had been in a single one-possession game since their Nov. 26 defeat to the Jayhawks, though, but said all week they had watched film of late-game scenarios and were prepared if it happened again.

Down one with 17.2 seconds left Saturday, it was clear where the ball was going. Flagg had struggled on the final possessions in both of those losses, but Scheyer understandably had confidence the Wooden Award winner gave Duke the best chance to win.

Flagg faced up against Roberts on the left wing, drove left, then turned back toward the middle of the floor and got up a contested 12-foot turnaround jumper. It fell short and Houston corralled the rebound.

"It's the play Coach drew up," Flagg said. "Took it into the paint. Thought I got my feet set, rose up. Left it short, obviously. A shot I'm willing to live with in the scenario. I went up on the rim, trust the work that I've put in."

Said James: "We trust him in that spot 100 times out of 100."

Cryer hit two free throws with 3.7 seconds left and Proctor's desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer went long.

Comeback complete. Collapse complete.

The Blue Devils, who had produced the most efficient offense in college basketball since at least the 1996-97 season, made just one field goal in the final 10:30.

Though Duke's lack of offensive execution late in the game was the more obvious issue, Scheyer pointed to the Blue Devils' uncharacteristically poor defense as a key contributor in the blown lead.

"We could talk about not scoring down the stretch," he said. "For me, it's our defense. We gave up 42 points in the second half. That's what carried us in the first half. 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."

The opening minutes of Saturday's game had all the hallmarks of a game that Sampson and Houston would want to play. Tugler got a hand on Flagg's first shot from the field, Houston had five offensive rebounds in the first four minutes and a loose ball that led to Wilson's layup and an early Houston lead.

The entire first half checked a lot of boxes that would, on paper, point to a Houston win.

Duke had multiple field goal droughts of more than four minutes and Flagg wasn't finishing consistently at the rim. Houston rebounded nearly 43% of its misses, grabbing nine offensive rebounds. And the Cougars had a 3-point barrage near the end of the half, burying three triples in the final 1:43 to bring their perimeter shooting percentage to 45.5% for the opening 20 minutes.

And yet, Duke entered the break with a six-point lead. The Blue Devils led by as many as 12 points in the first half, which was only the second time this season Houston trailed by double figures.

Duke also did it without getting a ton of production from its ancillary players. Khaman Maluach played just nine minutes in the first half, while James had a scoreless eight minutes. Proctor missed a couple of shots that would have extended an early Duke lead.

"We were really focused on those other guys," Sampson said. "We did a great job of not allowing Proctor to turn the corner and get in the paint off pin-downs. He's so good at that. We stayed down on every shot fake that he had. ... We did a great job on all the other guys. Knueppel, he made some tough 3s. Cooper Flagg, Cooper was not going to beat us by himself."

In the lead-up to Saturday's game against the Cougars' top-ranked defense, Scheyer stressed one thing: staying the course.

"I want us to be us," Scheyer said Thursday. "Let's be us and let's not be on our heels. I think that's an important thing when you play them. ... You really have to take advantage of that window of opportunity."

Duke did that -- for about 32 minutes.

But the Blue Devils, with the projected No. 1 pick in June's NBA draft and two other lottery picks, a team that entered the NCAA tournament and the Final Four as the favorites to cut down the nets, couldn't close out the win.

"More than anything, it's disappointment," James said.

He added: "We fully believe that we had the best team in the country and we had a chance to prove it."

SAN ANTONIO -- On the day Jon Scheyer was born in 1987, Kelvin Sampson had just been hired as the head coach at Washington State. By then, he had already spent nearly a decade as an assistant at multiple stops.

All of the basketball games he had won and lost -- the games his teams had squandered and salvaged -- over a career that spans more than four decades taught him the lesson that saved Houston's season and led the program to its third national title game Monday night after a miraculous, come-from-behind win over Duke in the Final Four.

"We did a great job on all the other guys," Sampson said after Houston's 70-67 victory over the Blue Devils on Saturday. [Kon Knueppel], he made some tough 3s. Cooper Flagg, Cooper was not going to beat us by himself. I felt like if we could just hang in there, even when we were down 14. ... These guys will tell you what I was talking about in the huddle was, 'Just hang in there, hang in there.'"

Yes, there is a technical breakdown of what happened Saturday. Duke's botched inbounds play with 31.8 seconds to go led to a crucial turnover and dunk by Joseph Tugler. J'Wan Roberts and L.J. Cryer made big free throws. Flagg's controversial foul on Roberts mattered, too. And Duke's Hail Mary pass with 3.7 seconds to play -- by a team that built a regime off Christian Laettner's Hail Mary three decades ago -- fell short in the team's final attempt to avoid one of the worst collapses in Final Four history.

To many observers, Flagg's 3-pointer that gave Duke a nine-point edge in the final minutes had ended Houston's dreams. The Blue Devils had a 95.5% win probability after that shot with 3:03 left, according to ESPN Research. But Sampson's mantra persisted.

Just hang in there, hang in there.

Every coach in America touts their team's toughness. It's a cliche that lacks any tangible barometer, though. How do you measure a team's toughness? How does a team actually use it to win games? And how does one team acquire more of it than another?

The Cougars answered those questions at 5 a.m. Thursday mornings just before the worst of the Texas heat arrived over the summer and long before the bright lights of San Antonio tested all of that toughness talk. There, the Cougars would gather and go through intense workouts on VersaClimbers. There were no basketballs in sight. Just a bunch of exhausted players, chasing a target time while climbing imaginary stairs.

"We put in a lot of time early in the year," Milos Uzan said. "We feel like we put in a lot of work that not many programs in the country put in. When you go through some adversity early in the year, it builds your togetherness and it builds your bond. And we really do believe."

Just hang in there, hang in there.

The Cougars also found out how tough they were after last year's Sweet 16 loss to Duke did not sit well with Sampson. Key injuries had impacted that game, but Sampson was more concerned about free throws (they were 9-for-17 that night). Following the loss, he demanded that every player on the roster shoot 150 free throws per night, a practice that continued through Tuesday. And if the grad assistant in charge of tracking those shots failed to slip a piece of paper with the nightly tallies underneath Sampson's office door each day, he would have hell to pay. But it was on those evenings when Roberts -- who made clutch free throws late against Duke on Saturday -- prepared for the biggest moment of his career.

"I wasn't really nervous at all just because of the work that I put in, just believing in it and trusting myself," Robert said after the game. "I try not to get sidetracked by how big the stage is or the crowd getting into it. I just try to trust myself, focus on my routine and trust my work."

But a matchup against Kansas earlier this year had forced Houston to dig deep and see if its claims about culture, heart and drive were real, too. With 10 seconds to play in that 92-86 overtime win against in January -- Sampson's first at Allen Fieldhouse -- the Cougars were down by six points but managed to prevail. Sampson said he used that rally to encourage his squad Saturday.

"Even when [Duke] went up 14, I thought we could play better," Sampson said. "I was just imploring our kids to stay with it. Just stay with it. Yeah, I brought up the Kansas game. I don't think I needed to. Our maturity on this team is pretty good."

Just hang in there, hang in there.

When Sampson preached resilience after Duke had seized that 14-point advantage with 8:17 to play, he was talking to a group of players who believed, not just because their coach told them to but because they had experienced it for themselves.

Houston, which boasts the No. 1 defense in America, has lost one game since Nov. 30. That's more than four months of basketball with one blemish. But the Cougars had spent grueling summer days together to get ready for this run. They had been in the gym without any cameras or fans in the stands to get ready for this run. And they had, over the course of the season, been tested to get ready for this run, too.

Even in the NCAA tournament, Gonzaga and Purdue had managed to challenge them in the final minutes before Duke seemed to have an insurmountable advantage. But those circumstances did not intimidate Sampson or his team.

"Quitting is not part of the deal," he said. "We're not going to quit. We're just going to play better."

On Saturday night, Houston was just too tough, not just because it talks about it but because, under Sampson, it actually lives it.

"We knew coming in that America had Duke picked," Uzan said. "As long as the people in the locker room believed, that's all that matters. We all believed."

DALLAS -- Sidney Crosby took part in another dueling hat tricks game with a Russian opponent 16 years after his memorable one in the playoffs against Alex Ovechkin.

Crosby finished off his hat trick with an empty-netter to seal the Pittsburgh Penguins' 5-3 victory at the Dallas Stars on Saturday after Evgenii Dadonov also scored three goals.

Crosby and Ovechkin each had a had trick in Game 2 of the Penguins' 2009 playoff series against the Washington Capitals, one of several meetings between the longtime rivals who were also faces of the sport for a long time after debuting in 2015.

This one came less than 24 hours after Ovechkin tied Wayne Gretzky's career goals record. Crosby brushed off any connection between his scoring and Ovechkin's milestone, which he called "really, really special."

"I think like everyone else, we knew it was a matter of time and obviously a pretty cool night," Crosby said. "For us, it was nice to come out here and get a win."

Crosby's third goal gave him 30 for a 13th time in 20 NHL seasons. Dadonov is one away from reaching 20 goals.

For Dallas, the loss to a non-contender from the Eastern Conference may loom large later this month when playoff seeding in finalized. The Stars are chasing the Winnipeg Jets for the Central Division title, and remain four points out of first place. Should they remain in second place, the Stars would likely draw the Colorado Avalanche in Round 1.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

In an interview with Sky Sports on Saturday, Sinner said he accepted the ban, even though he "wasn't really in agreement" because he had to "choose the least worst option".

"What I've been through is a bit unfair but if we look at the situation it could have gone a lot worse," said Sinner, who was speaking in his first interview since the ban.

"After we made the decision it took me a bit of time to refind my feet. I know what happened and I know that I'm innocent."

Despite being off the courts since he won the Australian Open earlier this year, Sinner is still top of the ATP Tour's world rankings with Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev unable to capitalise on his absence.

The three-time Grand Slam champion is set to make his competitive return on clay at the Rome Masters, which gets underway on 7 May.

Sinner said he "cannot wait to start playing again" but admitted there will be some trepidation about his comeback.

"I don't know what might happen," he added, when asked how he thought his fellow players will react to his return.

"It will be difficult making a comeback with so much attention on me.

"The people I have around me, not just my team but my family and friends, the people I'm closest to, have no doubts about what the truth is."

La Rochelle: Leyds; Nowell, Thomas, Seuteni, Bosmorin; West, Kerr-Barlow; Wardi, Bourgarit, Atonio; Lavault, Skelton; Botia, Jegou, Alldritt (capt).

Replacements: Lespiaucq; Kaddouri, Juntlia, Dillane, Cancoriet, Haddad, Hastoy, Favre.

Yellow cards: West, Leyds

Munster: Abrahams; Nash, Farrell, O'Brien, Smith; Crowley, Casey; Loughman, Barron, Jager; Kleyn, Beirne (capt); O'Mahony, Hodnett, Gavin Coombes.

Replacements: N Scannell, J Wycherley, Archer, F Wycherley, Ahern, Murray, R Scannell, Kendellen.

Yellow card: Smith, Kendellen

Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy)

Connacht: Mack Hansen; Shayne Bolton, Hugh Gavin, Bundee Aki, Finn Treacy; JJ Hanrahan, Matthew Devine; Jordan Duggan, Dave Heffernan (capt), Finlay Bealham, Oisín Dowling, Darragh Murray, Josh Murphy, Shamus Hurley-Langton, Sean Jansen.

Replacements: Dylan Tierney-Martin, Denis Buckley, Jack Aungier, Niall Murray, Paul Boyle, Caolin Blade, Josh Ioane, Cathal Forde.

Sin-bin: Hansen (33)

Cardiff: Cameron Winnett; Josh Adams, Rey Lee-Lo, Ben Thomas, Harri Millard; Callum Sheedy, Johan Mulder; Danny Southworth, Liam Belcher (capt), Keiron Assiratti, Josh McNally, Teddy Williams, Alun Lawrence, James Botham, Taulupe Faletau.

Replacements: Evan Lloyd, Corey Domachowski, Rhys Litterick, Rory Thornton, Alex Mann, Thomas Young, Ellis Bevan, Rory Jennings.

Sin-bin: McNally (40), Thomas (76)

Referee: Luc Ramos (FFR)

Assistant referees: Jeremy Rozier & Flavien Hourquet (FFR)

TMO: Eric Gauzins (FFR).

Tigers struck the first blow almost immediately. An initial push from a line-out maul was repelled by the home defence, but when the ball was recycled, Cracknell was able to burrow under the bodies to score.

Glasgow responded well, banging at the Leicester door, only to be denied by some ferocious defence. When Warriors did find a way through, it was in slightly fortuitous circumstances.

There seemed to be a mix-up in the line-out call when Johnny Matthews throw sailed right over the top, but Adam Hastings was on to it and slipped a pass for Venter to crash over.

The home side were on top and from a dominant scrum on the Leicester put-in, Vailanu was able to peel off the base and blast over.

With a strong wind at their backs, Glasgow continued to dominate territory and possession and looked to add to their advantage, but Leicester stood firm in the face of all that pressure. On the occasions they were opened up, their scramble defence was superb.

Hastings knocked over a penalty to send Glasgow in 17-5 up at the break.

Turning around to play into the breeze in the second period, the concern for the home side was whether a 12-point cushion was enough, but they added to it in the opening moments of the half, Vailanu going over from close range for his second of the evening.

The breeze was proving no problem at all for the hosts as they moved through the gears, and Hastings finished off a sweeping move for a try number four.

It was five almost immediately as Warriors sprung again straight from the restart, Kyle Rowe breaking free and finding Horne running a trademark support line to go in under the sticks.

This was turning into a bit if a doing, though Kata stemmed the tide somewhat by ghosting through to score Leicester's second try of the evening.

They should have scored again when Freddie Steward broke through and fed Dan Kelly, but with the line at his mercy, the centre inexplicably fumbled forward and the chance was lost.

Tigers third try did come eventually from Liebenberg, but by then the mountain to climb was too high for the visitors.

Venter powered over for his second try of the evening to round off a dominant Warriors performance.

Next up for the URC champions is one of European rugby's toughest tests, a last-eight showdown in Dublin with a Leinster side fresh from a 10-try demolition of Harlequins.