What Kelvin Sampson said on Houston's improbable comeback win in the Final Four

Houston erased a 14-point second-half deficit and pulled off a 70-67 win against Duke Saturday night in the Final Four.

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With that win, the Cougars (35-4) will be heading to play in Monday night's national championship game against Florida, which beat Auburn in the other national semifinal.

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How was Houston able to pull off its latest win? Here is what Cougar coach Kelvin Sampson had to say in the postgame media session following their latest win, their 18th consecutive:

Sampson on Houston erasing a 14-point deficit

“I knew that Duke's defense was going to give us some problems because of their length. We spent a lot of time matchup hunting in the second half, trying to get the right matchup. When they got up to 14, that's where a couple things go right for us.

“Emanuel (Sharp) hit a 3. We got an offensive rebound. They missed a couple tough ones. But we held them to 37% the second half. We held that team to 67 points. That was a tempo we could live with.

“We could not win this game in the 80s. We couldn't score 80. I felt like we could win the game in the high 60s or low 70s - I felt that way going in.”

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Sampson on Houston’s ability to get second-chance points

(Houston had 18 offensive rebounds on the night.)

“We have to depend on unscripted points a lot of nights. Unscripted points for us is second-chance points. I think we had 19 second-chance points. What's the difference in that, running the most beautiful play in the world, somebody comes off a screen, you go, ‘Bravo, great play.’

“That's two points. That's us. We're probably more of an offensive rebound, put it in for two, than a run the greatest play ever and have everybody go crazy because you executed something.

“We had 19 second-chance points. We scored eight points off their turnovers. We were under 10 on turnovers.

“We had 18 offensive rebounds. held them to 39%. So there you go."

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Sampson on how the Cougars were able to shut down Duke in the final minutes

“I knew we weren't going to turn Duke over much 'cause they don't turn it over. They're so disciplined. (Cooper) Flagg got 27, (Kon) Knueppel made some shots. We were really focused on those other guys. We did a great job of not allowing (Tyrese) 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. He shot fakes and gets in the paint. When we ran at him, we stayed down on shot fakes. When he would come off a pin-down, the guy guarding the ball would jump to the ball and make him pass it.

“We did a great job on all the other guys. Knueppel, he made some tough 3’s. 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.’”

Sampson on J’Wan Roberts hitting the go-ahead free throws with 20 seconds left

“When we lost to Duke last year in Dallas (in the Sweet 16), I didn't think we lost because we lost Jamal (Shead). I thought we lost because we lost JoJo Tugler to a broken foot at the end of February and Jamal. But the real reason was the free throw line; Ja’Vier (Francis) was 2-(of) 7, J'Wan was 3-(of) 8, a three-point game.

“When we got to June, when our kids came to (offseason workouts in) June, I gave a very impassioned talk about that. I don't know if these guys remember. I told them, I said, ‘We have got to change our mentality at the free-throw line.’

“Even though we only lost four games all year, a couple of those, the free-throw line impacted two of those. So we had our kids make 150 free throws seven days a week. I don't think J'Wan missed a day from June 2nd till we left on Wednesday. … Tuesday night, I looked at what he shot from the free-throw line with his 150 makes. He shot 87%. That was his highest percentage he ever stopped. When he started this, he was at 66.

“On his own, he went from 66 to 86. That wasn't the coaches. Give all the credit to him. He went to that free-throw line every single day and made himself. … In that moment (Saturday night), in the moment when everybody was watching, he prepared himself when nobody was watching for that moment tonight. So God bless him. Proud of him.”

Kelvin Sampson appreciating Houston's latest Final Four trip much more this time

Sampson on what he told his team at halftime

“Actually, I don't think we could play any worse. We were down six at halftime. … So instead of ranting and raving at halftime, I was probably more calm and positive 'cause I thought that's what they needed, you know? They know they played poorly. But we're only down six. We're not down 16. We're down six.

“We were down to Purdue the other night I think five. We were down to Arizona in the Big 12 championship game I think by five.

“I mean, being down, what's the problem? Didn't matter to me that we were down to the team we were playing. We were down six. I say a stop and a basket away from four.

“We changed some things offensively the second half, then started scoring. The problem was we were stopping them. Their first shot wasn't beating us. It was their second shot. They kept tracking down offensive rebounds. That's what was hurting us.

“I thought if we could hold them to 30 something from the field, be plus 10 on the boards, I thought we could win. Call me crazy, but I did.

“I think we were top three or four in the nation in field goal percentage defense. We've always been a pretty good rebounding team. It took us a while to become who we are. … Quitting is not part of the deal. We're not going to quit. We're just going to play better.”