ACC Tournament live updates from championship Saturday night: Duke wins the title
The ACC Tournament’s final game was a beauty, competitive throughout as No. 1 Duke emerged as the league champion once again.
Behind 20 points from Isaiah Evans, top-seeded Duke toppled No. 2 seed Virginia, 74-70, Saturday night at the Spectrum Center.
Tournament MVP Cameron Boozer scored 13 points on 3 of 17 shooting, but his two free throws with 3.9 seconds left gave Duke a four-point lead and assured their league-record 24th ACC championship.
Now headed to the NCAA Tournament, Duke (32-2) completed two seasons of dominance over the ACC. The Blue Devils’ back-to-back championships mark the first time a team has won the ACC in consecutive years since Mike Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils won three in a row from 2009-11.
This season, the Blue Devils went 17-1 in league regular-season play and won three ACC Tournament games. Combined with last season’s 19-1 league mark plus the three wins to claim the 2025 ACC Tournament title, Duke is 42-2 against ACC teams over the last two seasons.
This ACC championship is Duke’s third in Jon Scheyer’s fourth season as Blue Devils coach.
Ranked No. 10 nationally, Virginia (29-5) fell short while seeking its first ACC championship since 2018.
Duke won the league title despite having two starting players, guard Caleb Foster and center Pat Ngongba, sidelined by foot injuries.
Boozer leads all-tournament team
Cam Boozer won the Everett Case Award as tournament most valuable player with his Duke teammate, Isaiah Evans, joining him on the five-player first team. The other three players receiving first-team honors were Ugonna Onyenso and Sam Lewis of Virginia and Florida State’s Robert McCray V.
Duke’s Cayden Boozer, Cam Boozer’s twin brother, made second team all-tournament along with Lajae Jones of Florida State, UNC’s Henri Veesaar and two Virginia players, Malik Thomas and Thijs De Ridder.
Cayden Boozer ties his career high
After dropping 14 points in the first half, Cayden Boozer had yet to score out of the halftime break. He changed that when he grabbed an offensive rebound and shot a quick putback layup to put Duke up 68-66 with 2:49 remaining.
That put Boozer up to 16 points on the night and tied his career-best scoring output — which he set Friday night in the Blue Devils’ win over Clemson in the ACC Tournament semifinals.
Two free throws a minute later from Isaiah Evans gave Duke a four-point lead at 70-66 with 1:59 left to play.
Duke with one point lead at under four minutes
Duke coach Jon Scheyer called a timeout to give his team a breather with 4:57 to play and the score notched at 63-63.
Out of the stoppage, Isaiah Evans hit a 3-pointer to put the Blue Devils up by three points at 66-63. Virginia’s Malik Thomas responded with a stepback jumper to bring the score to 66-65 with 3:10 to play at the under-four media timeout.
Neither team has led by more than a single bucket since Chance Mallory’s 3-pointer with 16:03 left to play had the Cavaliers up by four points.
This should make for a thrilling finish in Charlotte.
All tied as click ticks under eight minutes
Virginia and Duke remain locked in a tight battle, with the score tied 58-58 with 7:45 to play.
Since Virginia forged a 49-45 lead with 16:03 to play, which Duke erased with a 5-0 run, no team has led by more than three points. The game has seen 14 lead changes and nine ties.
Sam Lewis leads Virginia with 17 points. His 3-pointer tied the game at 58. Cayden Boozer has 14 for Duke.
Ugonna Onyenso stacking up blocks
There’s a reason Virginia forward Ugonna Onyenso earned the second-most votes for All-ACC defensive team — just behind Duke’s Maliq Brown — when conference voting results came out Monday evening.
By Saturday night in Charlotte, Onyenso was throwing a block party. All Blue Devils invited.
Two of those blocks came in the first half, but the second half is where Onyenso really began to make his presence felt. With 11:51 to play, he’d already blocked five shots in the second frame. One more block at the 8:55 mark gave Onyenso his eighth of the game — tying his season-high mark.
Talk about a defensive impact.
Virginia reclaims lead early in second half
The Cavaliers outscored the Blue Devils 13-7 out of the halftime break to claim a 49-45 lead with 15 minutes to play in the game.
Duke turned the ball over twice and Virginia recorded three blocks in the first five minutes of the second half.
Duke up 38-36 at halftime
It’s the Cayden Boozer and Dame Sarr show. The two guards have combined for 21 of Duke’s 38 points thus far, including a highlight-worthy two-handed slam for Cayden Boozer in transition — one that had his father, Carlos Boozer, flexing and yelling from his courtside seat.
That dunk put Duke up by seven points, but the Blue Devils didn’t keep that edge for long.
Virginia responded with two free throws and a triple from Dallin Hall off two straight Blue Devil turnovers to make things a bit tighter at 36-34.
Duke coach Jon Scheyer called a 30-second timeout to calm his team down. Isaiah Evans responded with a layup that was immediately answered by an Ugonna Onyenso hook shot on the other end.
The Blue Devils led 38-36 at halftime.
Cayden Boozer in double digits
When Florida State sagged heavily off of Cayden Boozer in the ACC Tournament quarterfinal contest on Thursday, it threw the freshman off.
He said that much on Friday, describing the close win as a good lesson for him.
“Not being guarded, that’s the first time I’ve ever experienced that in my life,” Boozer said. “But you never know what’s gonna happen again. So having that experience and understanding that, no matter what they’re doing, I can control what I’m doing.”
Boozer said he’d keep his confidence up and not let that game dictate the rest of his season. That aggressive mentality showed on Saturday night, as the shorter of the two Boozer twins raced out to 12 points in the opening 12 minutes.
At the 6:48 mark in the first half, Duke led 24-23. Dame Sarr was the last to score, finishing on a fastbreak layup with an assist from — you guessed it — Cayden Boozer.
Virginia still up, but Boozers finding their groove
A Jacari White 3-pointer put Virginia up, 12-6, before Cayden Boozer responded with a corner trey off an assist from twin brother Cam.
Cayden Boozer followed that up with a layup to bring Duke’s deficit to one.
Johann Grunloh and Nik Khamenia traded buckets and the Hoos lead, 14-13, with 11:53 to play in the first half.
UVA up 9-6 at first timeout
Virginia went on a 7-0 run and hit four straight field goals to give the Cavaliers a 9-6 lead at the first media timeout.
The Blue Devils, on the other end, missed five straight field goals — including back-to-back 3-point attempts from Dame Sarr — entering the stoppage.
Duke vs. UVA injury updates / starters
Johann Grünloh was listed as a gametime decision for the ACC Championship game, but was part of the starting five for No. 2 seed Virginia, which tipped off at roughly 8:40 p.m. against No. 1 seed Duke.
The other starters for the Cavaliers: Dallin Hall, Malik Thomas, Sam Lewis and Thijs De Ridder.
Duke starters: Cayden and Cam Boozer, Isaiah Evans, Dame Sarr and Maliq Brown.
The Blue Devils are still without Caleb Foster and Patrick Ngongba II.
ACC Tournament schedule
At Spectrum Center, Charlotte
Tuesday’s results
Pittsburgh 64, Stanford 63
SMU 86, Syracuse 69
Wake Forest 95, Virginia Tech 89
Wednesday’s results
N.C. State 98, Pittsburgh 88
Louisville 62, SMU 58
Florida State 95, California 89
Clemson 71, Wake Forest 62
Thursday’s quarterfinals
Virginia 81, N.C. State 74
Miami 78, Louisville 73
Duke 80, Florida State 79
Clemson 80, North Carolina 79
Friday’s semifinals
Virginia 84, Miami 62
Duke 73, Clemson 61
Saturday’s championship
Duke 74, Virginia 70
This story was originally published March 14, 2026 at 8:06 PM.