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Houston • In front of thousands of flickering TV screens across the country, grown men screamed.

Just when it looked like the game was over, when it looked like Duke would prevail against Utah by five, referee D.J. Cartensen called the Utes and the Blue Devils back to the floor.

The teams had already shaken hands. They were already wearily heading to the locker room. But there was still a bit of game left to play: free throws.

Under normal circumstances, it would be meaningless. But when Quinn Cook hit the second free throw of his two attempts with seven-tenths of a second left, it meant millions of dollars would change hands.

The line on the game varied between 5 and 5.5 points. By winning 63-57 instead of 62-57, Duke covered the spread.

Website Vegas Insider estimated 74 percent of bettors had picked the Devils, while website Top Bet reported 83 percent of wagers were on Duke. It meant big money for most who had hit the sports books, and got losers grumbling about conspiracy theories.

Several media outlets reported wild reactions at casinos around Las Vegas. ESPN quoted one bookmaker at William Hill, an online gaming website, reporting six-figure losses for just his outfit.

For the Utes, it was just a painful extension of an already painful loss. Brandon Taylor fouled out after fouling Cook, and the margin of victory — already insurmountable with the time remaining — extended by a point.

Coach K compliments Coach K

While the Utes didn't get past Duke, they gave the Blue Devils a bit of a challenge and took away their best player.

Player of the Year candidate and superstar frosh center Jahlil Okafor scored 6 points to match a season low. It led Jakob Poeltl to assess Utah's defensive effort as "a pretty great job."

Mike Krzyzewski agreed, and praised how Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak arranged his defense to put the brakes on Okafor.

"They went zone, man, switching, and our guys, I don't know if we were nervous or the fact that we didn't recognize things as quickly made us nervous," he said. "But I didn't think we were ourselves early, and I'm proud of my guys because during the game they changed, they changed. ... Hopefully Jahlil will score more than six points on Sunday. They did a great job on him, though. That's some of the pro things that, you know — he's a heck of a coach."

History in Houston

Krystkowiak's most enduring memory of Houston as an NBA player was being on the court for Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon's quadruple-double of 18 points, 16 rebounds, 11 blocked shots and 10 assists in 1990. Krystkowiak went 5 for 9 from the field, scoring 10 points in 20 minutes. He remembers contributing to Olajuwon's blocks total, but a play-by-play of the game is not available. The game was played at the Summit, which since has been converted into Lakewood Church.

Kurt Kragthorpe contributed to this story. kgoon@sltrib.com

Twitter: @kylegoon