Houston stunned Duke on Saturday to advance to the championship game of the 2025 NCAA Tournament, and one crazy stat proves that the Blue Devils lost in unprecedented fashion.
Houston defeated Duke 70-67 in the Final Four game between the two teams at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Duke led by as many as 14 points in the second half and six points with 1:26 remaining, but they collapsed and allowed the Cougars to come back and win.
With the heartbreaking result, Duke became the only team to lose a game in the NCAA Tournament when besting an opponent in five categories: field goal percentage, free throw attempts, assists, turnovers and steals.
Since steals became an official stat in 1986, teams in that situation were previously 335-0.
Duke is the only team to have an NCAA Tournament game with:
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) April 6, 2025
a higher FG%
more FT attempts
more assists
fewer turnovers
more steals
…than their opponent & yet still lose (since steals became official in 1986). Teams had been 335-0 when doing all that in the tourney. pic.twitter.com/afGEzTkfq9
Houston outscored Duke 11-1 over the final 74 seconds to pull off the upset. The Cougars did get a huge assist from the officiating crew, however.
Blue Devils star Cooper Flagg was called for an unbelievable foul while fighting for a rebound on a missed free throw with 19.6 seconds remaining. Duke was leading 67-66 at the time, and Houston hit both free throws to take the lead. You can see the video of the play here.
There have not been as many crazy finishes in NCAA Tournament games this year as we have seen in past tournaments. The Duke-Houston finish made up for that, and the stats show just how improbable the comeback was.
