ST. LOUIS -- Ask coach Jim Montgomery about the St. Louis Blues' franchise-best 12-game winning streak and he'll give you a succinct answer.

"It means we're good," Montgomery said after Saturday night's 5-4 victory over the Colorado Avalanche extended the longest winning streak in the NHL this season. "We're a good hockey team."

The Blues are 18-2-2 since the 4 Nations Face-Off break and have climbed into the first wild-card position in the Western Conference with the most wins (18) and points (38) by any NHL team in that span.

"The boys are rolling," said Zach Bolduc, who scored two power-play goals against Colorado. "The whole team is playing well. It's fun to be a part of it. We've just got to keep it going."

The team's longest previous win streak of 11 games came during the 2018-19 season when St. Louis won the Stanley Cup. Jordan Binnington was a starting goaltender as a rookie that season.

He stopped 35 shots Saturday and matched the franchise-record home win streak for a goaltender at 10.

"It's very cool. It's good to enjoy these moments, especially at home," Binnington said. "It's really fun to play here right now and you can tell there's good energy all around. At the same time, we've got to focus and keep looking forward while we're here."

What Montgomery likes best is how his club is focusing on each game. There is no talking about the streak or what players are out because of injury.

That has been the key.

"I think staying in the moment, just worrying about our next game and getting prepared for it," Montgomery said. "Our day-to-day habits have been excellent. Not discussing where we are in the standings and not talking about who's injured. We haven't talked about any of them once as a group together."

The Blues are without Colton Parayko, who hurt his knee March 5 against the Kings in Los Angeles. He had a scope procedure afterward.

In 62 games this season, Parayko has scored a career-high 15 goals and has 35 points. The Blues have gone 13-1-1 without him.

Dylan Holloway is also out and is listed as week-to-week because of a lower-body injury. He has 26 goals and 37 assists in 77 games.

"I am proud of that group in there to be able to overcome all of the adversity that we've had this year, whether that was self-inflicted by us," Montgomery said. "It doesn't matter. We've overcome it. I'm proud of that group for what they've achieved."

"It's been a total team effort," Pavel Buchnevich said.

"It's not just who scores the goals. It's a full team shift in, shift out and it's hard to play against us," Buchnevich said. "We play for each other right now and sacrifice for the team."

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- Forward Trinity Rodman scored just over five minutes into her international return to lift the United States women's national team to a 2-0 victory over Brazil on Saturday at SoFi Stadium.

Rodman had not played for the USWNT since the squad's Olympic gold medal triumph over Brazil last August due to a lingering back injury. She started on Saturday and quickly latched onto a through ball from Alyssa Thompson. Rodman finished the shot with the outside of her right foot.

"That was the perfect ball to the perfect finish, so I'm really happy about it," Rodman said.

Captain Lindsey Heaps scored the other goal from the penalty spot in the 66th minute.

"I'm very happy to be back -- back with a newer team but still same environment, same vibe, energy," Rodman said. "I think I missed it a lot. It was just kind of me being back into it, bringing my level of competitiveness, energy, but also trying to relearn a couple new things while remembering the foundation of this team."

USWNT head coach Emma Hayes described Rodman as "world-class" after the match.

"Delighted for her," Hayes said. "That goal meant a lot. She loves this environment; she cares so much for this team. I've said this all week: She's been smiling from ear to ear being back in this environment, and I'm so happy to have her."

Rodman recently said she might have to manage her back injury for the rest of her career. After her goal on Saturday, she faked a back injury as part of her celebration.

"Medical staff was freaking out, but I thought I had to do it," Rodman said with a big smile.

"Except I didn't think she was pretending, so I will have a word with her because that's like a cry wolf moment," Hayes said. "I turned to the physios and I said her back's hurting, instantly, and then I realized she was tricking us."

Rodman played 60 minutes in a physical game that saw her hit the ground multiple times.

"It feels really good, coming off the Olympics and then obviously being out, progressing back into high-level minutes is exciting but also, it's kind of managing how I want to play and the intensity at which I'm doing it," Rodman said.

Phallon Tullis-Joyce started and made her international debut in goal and became the 28th goalkeeper in USWNT history to earn a cap.

Defender Avery Patterson also made her debut on Saturday, entering the match in the 88th minute.

"They're really fast learners and they're really coachable," Hayes said. "They want to do all the things that this team requires. We're a team; we love this team for that reason. We want to contribute to the crest."

Saturday's game marked the first women's sporting event at SoFi Stadium. The announced attendance was 32,303.

Brazil and the USWNT will play again on Tuesday in San Jose.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- Trinity Rodman waited 238 days to play for the United States women's national team again after winning an Olympic gold medal, and she needed exactly five minutes on Saturday to remind the world why she is the USWNT's new superstar. That is when she darted behind Brazil's defense and deftly finished her shot with the outside of her right foot to put the Americans ahead early.

"Trin, she's world-class," USWNT head coach Emma Hayes said after her team's 2-0 victory over Brazil at SoFi Stadium.

Rodman's return to the USWNT gave the Olympic champions a shot of energy on and off the field. She is the team's new star, one emerging in the wake of the recent retirements of some of best players and biggest personalities to ever wear the U.S. crest. The crowd of over 32,000 fans confirmed as much before the match with booming cheers for Rodman and fellow hometown forward Alyssa Thompson, who provided the through ball for the opening goal.

On the field, Rodman is increasingly a focal point of a United States team navigating that generational transition with waves of new, less experienced players. Even at 22 years old, Rodman is one of the most established players in the squad.

"She brings a huge energy on and off the field, and it's incredible to just feed off of that," said USWNT teammate Ally Sentnor, who started in the No. 10 role on Saturday. "Every tackle she goes into, every run that she makes, it really just adds to the game and makes you want to bring that high energy, too."

Many of the new players tested by Hayes have held their own, but with so many veterans missing -- from injured defenders Naomi Girma and Tierna Davidson, to the other two-thirds of the self-proclaimed "Triple Espresso" of Sophia Wilson and Mallory Swanson, who are on leave -- Rodman also provides the USWNT a sense of stability. She stretches lines and leaves defenders spinning in circles, as Brazil did throughout the opening minutes of Saturday's match.

If all else fails for the USWNT, Rodman will still do something special, whether it is scoring as she did on Saturday or getting out of pressure with her famous "Trin Spin" move.

Saturday was Rodman's 47th cap. She is already an Olympic gold medalist and scored three goals at last year's Games, and she has a World Cup under her belt as well. While she isn't yet the vocal leader of the team, she is a game changer who unequivocally makes the USWNT better.

"My leadership comes from the way that I play and how aggressive that I [am], but also just the energy that I provide," Rodman said on Saturday. "I think I try to embed in this team that you lock in at the right moments, but you can also kind of have fun and be a human at different moments."

Rodman displayed that humanity during her goal celebration on Saturday when she briefly faked a back injury, which sent an unsuspecting Hayes into brief panic, the coach said after the match. Rodman laughed it off as a funny celebration, and Hayes said she was happy to see her star forward back in camp and "smiling from ear to ear."

Rodman played for only 60 minutes on Saturday as she's still managing her back pain, and there were signs of that throughout the match as she subtly held her right hip or took a few extra seconds to get back on her feet after a hard challenge from a Brazilian defender. Overall, Rodman didn't look like an injured player returning to a team; she did exactly what she is known to do. Yes, she scored, and was a constant source of industry up and down the right flank, attacking Brazil's sometimes disjointed three-back defense while also tracking back to help clear the ball defensively whenever the USWNT's opponents turned up the pressure.

"The goal itself, yeah, obviously it's big-time," said USWNT captain Lindsey Heaps, who scored the team's other goal from the penalty spot midway through the second half. "But I think [Rodman's] presence and just having her on the field -- it's a calming factor."

Hayes reiterated this week that she is still experimenting with individual players to give them opportunities and see how they perform against top competition. The process will come with some growing pains, like February's loss to Japan at the SheBelieves Cup. There have been plenty of positives along the way -- including the return of Catarina Macario from her own injury and the resurgence of the 20-year-old Thompson to her best form yet. Thompson was electric in the first half on Saturday as she cut inside from the left wing to beat Brazilian defenders on the dribble.

The key to everything, Hayes has said, is balance. She is integrating new and young players into the team alongside veterans while trying to make sure she doesn't set anyone up to fail. Hayes got the formula right again on Saturday as the USWNT jumped on Brazil early. Over the 90 minutes, the Americans produced 2.72 expected goals from their efforts to Brazil's 1.41, per U.S. Soccer, a measurement of the quality of chances they created.

"I think you're seeing that this less experienced team are growing up," Hayes said after Saturday's victory, and Rodman is part of that maturation process. Saturday served as further confirmation that she is the next big thing for the USWNT.

SAN ANTONIO -- Soon after the buzzer sounded in the national semifinal, Auburn star big man Johni Broome slumped over a few feet from the baseline, his hands etched into his thighs and head slung toward the floor.

As his teammates waded toward the postgame handshake line, Broome stood frozen with the grief from Auburn's 79-73 loss to Florida on Saturday at the Alamodome. After a second half full of missed opportunities that left Broome scoreless for the game's final 15 minutes, Auburn's historic season, Broome's resplendent career and the dream of winning the school's first men's basketball title ended.

"It's been a special year, probably best year of my life," Broome said, speaking barely above a whisper in the Auburn locker room. "I wanted to win the national championship. It hurts. This team was special."

In the postgame locker room, Broome wore a black hoodie pulled over his forehead and his cracked, red eyes looked down at the locker room floor. He was barely audible as he tried to put the game and season into context. Broome went scoreless for the game's final 15 minutes and 12 seconds after dominating much of the first half. He closed the game's final 15 minutes with three missed free throws, two misses from the field and three turnovers, which included an offensive foul.

"I feel like we got the looks that we wanted to get," he said. "I wasn't able to capitalize and finish them."

By the end of the game, he looked overcome with exhaustion and emotion. And in the Florida locker room, the coaches and players took credit for the physical toll they inflicted on Broome.

Florida is the rare team that rotates in four capable big men, and the coaching staff pointed out that the wave of fresh bodies helped tire Broome. The combination of 6-foot-11 Alex Condon, 6-10 Rueben Chinyelu, 6-9 Thomas Haugh and 7-1 Micah Handlogten slowly eroded Broome's effectiveness.

"Everybody got a piece of him, and we could see by that 10-minute mark in the second half he was really starting to get fatigued," Florida associate head coach Carlin Hartman said.

It was a stark difference from the first half. Broome had 12 points at halftime and Florida did a poor job moving him from his desired spots. The Auburn staff was optimistic at halftime about how sharp he looked.

"That was about as much pop and pace that he's played with in a long time," Auburn assistant coach Steven Pearl said. "And he showed why he's the best, if not one of the best players in all college basketball."

Pearl then pointed out that a different level of energy is required to handle the waves of Florida big men. Florida assistant John Andrzejek credited Hartman for a fiery halftime speech that included challenging Chinyelu, whom Broome took advantage of in the first half.

Andrzejek scouted Florida, and part of that included a deep analysis of the risk-reward of not doubling Broome. Because the Gators didn't, Broome spent parts of the first half methodically pounding the ball into the paint. None of his shots were from more than eight feet.

The Gators needed to make sure he couldn't establish himself. And Andrzejek stressed that the Gators force Broome to shoot over his left shoulder.

Hartman's halftime motivational speech to the Gators' big men lasted about three minutes, was pockmarked with some colorful language and ended with a simple theme -- it's OK to lose, but it's not OK to get pushed around. It was much more emotional than technical. Chinyelu recalled: "He said, 'We're playing soft right now. We're not playing like ourselves.'"

Broome took a hard fall against Michigan State on Sunday and didn't practice this week until Thursday because of an injured elbow. Broome's right elbow was padded and then wrapped in a sleeve that stretched from his right bicep to his wrist.

"Our medical staff did an unbelievable job this week of just making sure that he was as comfortable as he possibly could," Pearl said. "Every time Florida had a chance, they were hitting that [elbow], and that's part of the game. And Johni, to his credit, played through that physicality, played through that contact and was still able to have a really effective game."

And when Broome's space collapsed and his energy zapped, Auburn's chances went with him. The Tigers had 12 second-half turnovers -- the Florida coaching staff counted 20 second-half deflections -- and Auburn had just eight second-half paint points after 26 in the first half.

The second-half performance left a pall over the Auburn locker room as Broome whispered answers to the final questions he received after the loss.

"Obviously, I left my impact on what I've done here," he said. "I [thank] God for allowing me to come here and be able to make an impact."

On Saturday night, he couldn't give them enough.

SAN ANTONIO -- The crowd at the Final Four is often filled with college basketball dignitaries.

In the front row of the Alamodome on Saturday sat Jim Boeheim, Mark Few, Scott Drew, Nate Oats and Tubby Smith. Mike Krzyzewski, Hakeem Olajuwon, Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony were also in the building.

But when Florida star Walter Clayton Jr. lit up the Alamodome with a 34-point effort in his team's 79-73 victory over Auburn, the same group of basketball veterans who had seen it all before reacted as if perhaps they hadn't.

"That Walter Clayton Jr. is the real deal," said Roy Williams, who coached Michael Jordan as an assistant at North Carolina under Dean Smith, from his seat near midcourt. "He's the real deal."

In his latest extraordinary, come-from-behind effort, Clayton matched history. Before Saturday, only Larry Bird had scored 30 points or more in back-to-back Elite Eight and Final Four games. Clayton's effort Saturday followed a 30-point contribution in a win over Texas Tech, which had a nine-point lead with 3:14 to play.

That's why Clayton's teammates weren't surprised.

"I feel like everybody sees it," Florida guard Will Richard said after Saturday's game. "He's poised, calm and collected, confident in himself. We have that confidence in him. We see him practice. We see his work ethic. We're glad everybody else is getting to see him do it in a game."

"He's incredible," added Thomas Haugh, who, along with Alijah Martin (17 points) and Clayton, was one of three Gators in double figures. "On and off the court, he's a great dude. We trust him in those situations. He knocks down big shots day after day."

From the beginning of Saturday's matchup, everything Auburn coach Bruce Pearl feared in his team's second meeting with Florida had come true.

Clayton, who scored 19 points in a 90-81 win at Auburn on Feb. 8, hit 3-pointers from multiple spots. He scored in traffic. He made a layup from an impossible angle after halftime. He hit a 3-pointer to cut Auburn's lead in the second half, too. And when he finished a three-point play with a layup after a foul in the final minutes, the obit on Auburn's 2024-25 season was nearly finished.

"Clayton has been the best guard on the floor every single night," Pearl said Friday. "Clayton can't be the best guard on the floor tomorrow."

But he was, only two months after he had been the best guard on the floor in Florida's win over Auburn in SEC play.

The Gators will play in the national title game for the first time since 2007, when they won their second national title in a row.

On Saturday, Florida's postgame locker room was not only the scene of a celebration but also a chance for Clayton's biggest fans to convey why they weren't scared when the team was down by nine points -- the same margin it erased late against Texas Tech -- early in the second half.

Gators center Micah Handlogten and his teammates had predicted the outcome at halftime. With 20 minutes left, they told one another, Auburn had left too much time on the clock for Clayton.

"The fact that he can go out there tonight and score 34 points and get us to a national championship is just amazing," Handlogten said. "I can't really explain it. He never shows too much emotion. He always just has this little mean mug on and he just hoops."

Those who play with Clayton said they also become fans when the AP first-team All-American enters what multiple teammates called a "zone" that they can feel approaching as he heats up. The shots that shouldn't fall always seem to during those stretches. And when they do, the Gators know that they can take control of the game.

"I feel like he's in the zone every time he touches the rock," Sam Alexis said about his team's confidence amid adversity with Clayton on the roster. "We've got Walt. He's going to let it fly."

Added Denzel Aberdeen, who has played with Clayton since they were on the same AAU team in middle school: "You always look in the sky and see it go through the net and you're like, 'Oh my goodness, he's like that.'"

Auburn's game plan against Clayton was the byproduct of hours of film. In some ways, it worked. Clayton did not get a multitude of open looks. But even when his shots were challenged, they still went in.

"We will go back and watch the film and you're going to see three or four, just highly contested, high-degree-of-difficulty shots, but that's why he is one of the best players in college basketball because he's able to do those things," said Steven Pearl, Auburn's associate head coach. "So hats off to him. Obviously, he did an unbelievable job of willing them to a national championship game."

But Clayton wants more.

On Monday night, he'll have a chance to lead his team to its third national title and first championship in nearly two decades when it takes on Houston, a 70-67 winner over Duke in Saturday's late semifinal.

Also, with another effort like the one he's had over the past two games, he'll have a chance to join the lineage of Final Four stars who are known by one name. Laettner. Mateen. Carmelo. Kemba. AD. Shabazz. Tyus. DiVincenzo. Tristen.

Clayton?

If, after Saturday's win, Clayton felt the weight of that possibility, he never showed it. Throughout Saturday's game, his teammates noted his calm demeanor.

Knowing Clayton can't be rattled has become a problem in the NCAA tournament -- for everyone else.

"That's just me, I guess," Clayton said. "Don't get too high, don't get too low."

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."