Clemson clamps down: 3 takeaways from Duke basketball’s first ACC loss of the season
Cooper Flagg turned a rough day into a great one — until he slipped and fell at an inopportune moment for No. 2 Duke.
After overcoming a slow start with a scoring flurry in the game’s final six minutes, Flagg fell while driving to the basket with Duke down two points with 14.7 seconds left. That turnover allowed Clemson to escape with a 77-71 win over the Blue Devils on Saturday night at Littlejohn Coliseum.
“It was a play coach drew up,” Flagg said. “Created a lane. I actually had a lane. Just drove, tried to come to two feet and just raise up. I kind of slipped and fell, or whatever happened. I just kind of fell.”
With Clemson leading 73-71, Duke called timeout to set up a play with 18.5 seconds remaining. The ball was inbounded to Flagg, who drove to the lane, but both of his feet came out from under him as if he’d stepped on ice. He fell to the court and was called for traveling.
“It was so humid in there,” Flagg said. “The floor was holding the water. So it probably was a little wet spot. Just unfortunate.”
The loss snapped Duke’s 16-game winning streak, which had been the nation’s longest, and prevented the Blue Devils from a chance at moving to No. 1 in the Associated Press poll. That opportunity opened when No. 1 Auburn lost, 90-81, to No. 6 Florida earlier Saturday.
Instead, Duke (20-3, 12-1 ACC) saw its perfect ACC record ruined as it suffered its first loss since Nov. 26.
“Losing sucks,” Scheyer said. “I hate it. I hate it more than anything. Our team hates it. So I know we’re going to have a group that responds and can really get us to a place where we need to be. Because, look, this is what March is. This is ACC basketball.”
On the way to scoring 18 points, Flagg made just 2 of his first 11 shots before scoring 14 points over a five-minute span. That included a 3-pointer with 59.1 seconds left that put Duke up 71-70.
Viktor Lakhin led Clemson (19-5, 11-2 ACC) with 22 points,. Chase Hunter had 14, and Jaeden Zackery and Ian Schieffelin added 12 each.
The Tigers shot 58.8%, the best against Duke this season. No team had shot 50% against the Blue Devils prior to Clemson. Kansas had posted the previous best shooting performance against Duke, hitting 49.1% of its shots while beating the Blue Devils, 75-72, on Nov. 26 in Las Vegas.
“On offense, they move with such a great pace,” Scheyer said of the Tigers. “They did a good job getting in and out of their ball screens quickly. I don’t know if our talk was as good as it needed to be. I think we’ll look back and see some rotations that need to be there that weren’t there. But give them credit. I thought they just did a great job moving on offense, sharing it, and making the right play.”
Tyrese Proctor scored 23 points for Duke, which shot 31% in the second half to finish at 43.6% for the game. Kon Knueppel added 14 points.
The Blue Devils led 41-35 at halftime but a second-half shooting slump allowed Clemson to move ahead by as many as seven points in the second half. Duke made just 4 of its first 18 shots after halftime and the Tigers unleashed a 12-0 run to take a 56-49 lead with 9:47 to play.
Clemson led 59-54 with 6:26 to play after a Schieffelin slam dunk before Flagg finally got going. He hit two free throws at 6:05, then nailed a 3-pointer with 5:33 to play to tie the game.
Proctor’s 3-pointer at 4:10 put Duke up 62-61 and the lead began to see-saw.
Clemson opened up some breathing room when Zackery hit a jumper and Lakhin added two free throws at 2:33 to give the Tigers a 67-64 lead. Flagg erased that with a 3-pointer, but Dillon Hunter responded with a 3-pointer to put Clemson up 70-67 with 1:46 remaining.
Flagg hit a free throw with 1:16 left and, after Schieffelin missed two free throws, swished a 3-pointer with 59.1 seconds left putting Duke ahead 71-70.
But Zackery drove the lane and hit a bank shot with 38.4 seconds left, giving Clemson a 72-71 lead. After Sion James missed a shot in the lane for Duke, Lakhin made one free throw with 21.5 seconds left before Flagg’s attempt to tie the score again ended with him falling to the court for a turnover.
Here are three takeaways from the key ACC basketball game:
Tigers dominate rebounding
Duke entered the game knowing it needed to rebound well to prevent Clemson from getting second and third chances on the offensive end. That did not happen as the Tigers won the rebounding battle 36-23.
The Blue Devils turned in their worst rebounding performance of the season. The previous low was 25 while losing to Kansas.
Clemson used its rebounding prowess to gain a 15-5 edge in second-chance points. The Tigers also scored 40 of their points in the paint, which helped them gain such a high shooting percentage.
Duke struggled to contain Lakhin, Clemson’s 6-11 senior center.
Meanwhile, no Duke player finished with more than five rebounds.
Clemson shot lights out early … but still trailed
Playing against a tough Duke defensive team that had not allowed a team to shoot 50% for an entire game all season, Clemson made 14 of its first 19 shots of the game and finished the first half at 68%.
The problem? Duke never trailed and took a 41-35 advantage to intermission.
That’s mostly because Duke recorded seven steals, leading the Tigers to finish the first half with 10 turnovers.
When not turning the ball over, Clemson was successful penetrating Duke’s defense as the Tigers had 20 points in the paint in the first 20 minutes.
Clemson’s 68% was easily the best first-half shooting performance against Duke this season, topping the previous high of 58% by Boston College.
Missing Gillis
Duke played its second consecutive game without grad student forward Mason Gillis (illness) and that absence became more and more of a problem in the second half.
That’s partly because 6-7 forward Kon Knueppel picked up his fourth foul with 9:54 to play. The fact that 7-2 freshman Khaman Maluach was already on the bench with three fouls only made the situation worse.
Though only 6-6, Gillis is capable of and has been asked to guard interior players at times this season.
Instead, the Blue Devils had to use 6-6 freshman Isaiah Evans for longer stretches that they usually would in a competitive game. That hurt Duke defensively, allowing the Tigers to get offensive rebounds for second-chance points as well as get shots in the lane.
This story was originally published February 8, 2025 at 9:20 PM.