Painful win: Three takeaways as Duke topples Virginia, but loses key reserve to injury
Another superior performance from freshman Cooper Flagg, who got plenty of scoring help from his teammates, led No. 3 Duke to its latest lopsided ACC win on Monday night.
Flagg produced a double-double with 17 points and 14 rebounds, leading the Blue Devils to an 80-62 win over Virginia at John Paul Jones Arena.
Winner of 19 of its past 20 games, Duke (23-3, 15-1 ACC) maintained its hold on first place in the ACC standings by posting its 13th league win by 10 points or more.
Kon Knueppel added 17 points for Duke while freshman Isaiah Evans shot 5 of 6 on 3-pointers and also scored 17 points. Duke shot 52.5% and never trailed after the game’s first five minutes.
Virginia (13-13, 6-9 ACC) shot 38.5% to see its season-best three-game winning streak halted.
Here are three takeaways from Duke’s latest win:
Maliq Brown injury
Duke held a 15-point lead and was cruising toward a lopsided win when it lost 6-9 junior forward Maliq Brown to a left shoulder injury with 1:21 to play in the first half.
While playing defense, Brown reached with his left arm and deflected the ball away from Virginia’s Ishan Sharma. Brown immediately grimaced and grabbed his upper left arm in the triceps area. Play was stopped and he went to bench, where Duke’s medical staff escorted him to the locker room.
He returned to the bench in the second half with his left arm in a sling.
Brown has already missed five games due to injury this season: One in December with a toe injury and four in January due to a sprained knee. He returned to action on Feb. 1 and Monday night was his sixth consecutive game seeing action for the Blue Devils.
Rebounding dominance
Duke started February losing the rebounding battle in three consecutive games. Even though the Blue Devils won two of those games handily (87-70 over North Carolina and 89-54 at Syracuse), Duke coach Jon Scheyer lamented his team’s inability to secure 50-50 balls which so often happen in rebounding situations.
When the Blue Devils lost 77-71 at Clemson on Feb. 8, the Tigers grabbed 13 more rebounds than the Blue Devils.
Duke was outstanding in that area against Virginia, collecting 41 rebounds to 21 for the Cavaliers.
The Blue Devils were locked in from the beginning, corralling 15 of the game’s first 17 rebounds. At halftime Duke had 24 rebounds to Virginia’s eight.
Evans erupts
A 6-6 freshman known for his 3-point touch, Evans hit four or more 3-pointers for the sixth time this season.
Evans hit his first three 3-point attempts in the first half, scoring nine consecutive Duke points to push the Blue Devils’ lead to 30-16 with 7:17 to play until halftime.
It was reminiscent of Evans’ best performance of his rookie season, when he made six 3-pointers (all in the first half) in Duke’s 84-78 win over Auburn on Dec. 4 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Including Monday night’s outburst, Evans has shot 41 of 91 on 3-pointers this season, for a healthy 45.1% accuracy.
This story was originally published February 17, 2025 at 10:05 PM.