Duke basketball takes ACC Tournament championship in thrilling win over Virginia
It hadn’t been Cameron Boozer’s night up until then, but still, with 27.4 seconds left and everything on the line, one of the best young coaches in the game commanded that the ball — and the game’s fate — was to be in Boozer’s hands.
Boozer delivered.
Not how you thought he might — but he did nonetheless.
Up two, the Duke freshman and leading candidate for national player of the year drove right, crossed over, leaned his shoulder into Virginia’s Ugonna Onyenso, missed his layup but collected his own board — resetting the shot clock. He then kicked it to Isaiah Evans, who was fouled and proceeded to hit both free throws.
There were a few thrills thereafter, but that play effectively sealed Duke’s win over the Cavaliers. And as a result, the Jon Scheyer-coached No. 1-seeded Blue Devils defeated Virginia, 74-70, and earned their second consecutive ACC Tournament championship. It marks the first time that Duke has won back-to-back tournament titles since Mike Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils won three in a row from 2009 to 2011.
It also might have just cemented Duke as the nation’s No. 1 overall seed for the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
“I think the thing that’s so special about that play, it can be dejecting,” Scheyer said of that aforementioned Boozer missed-layup-turned-game-sealing-rebound. “It can be really discouraging when that happens. To have the awareness to understand the shot clock — like he could have easily gone back up, but he made the smart play to get it out. I think that was just such a big-time play.”
Continued Scheyer: “I’ve seen him in different moments where he hasn’t been at his best. But we’re spoiled. I’m spoiled because he’s 13-8-8. It’s like, that’s an off night for him. It just is. He’s really spoiled us with his consistency.”
The Blue Devils were led by Evans, who finished with 20 points, and helped by Cayden Boozer (16 points) and Cam Boozer (13). Cam Boozer also added a game-high eight assists and eight rebounds.
Virginia finished with two scorers in double figures: Malik Thomas (18 points) and Sam Lewis (17).
How Duke won another ACC Tournament championship
The game started about as evenly as it could. And with plenty of nerves.
Both teams — which came into the championship with shooting reputations that preceded them — took a while to get comfortable. Duke shot 3 of 11 from 3 in the opening half; Virginia went 4 of 14. They each had six turnovers. Each had five fast-break points.
The only discernible edges belonged to Duke.
The first: Duke led in the rebounding department, 19 to 12.
The second: Cayden Boozer. Full stop. The guard who stood tall all tournament for injured point guard Caleb Foster rose to the moment again Saturday. He finished with 14 points in the first half — two away from his career high, which he matched Saturday — finishing through traffic, mending broken plays, even chasing down a loose ball and flushing away a fast-break dunk in front of his courtside-sitting father, Carlos, who leapt from his seat on that play and others.
“In the beginning of the game, they just weren’t guarding me, so I kept scoring,” Cayden said after the game. “And then once I get confident, I feel like no one can really stop me, so I just kept attacking. I felt that was pretty much it.”
Said Cam of Cayden: “I’m super proud of him. I see all the hard work he puts in and how great of a player he is. For him to come here two guys down, really step up for us, should give him tremendous confidence going into the tournament. We’re going to need that from him the rest of the year.”
The game was symmetrical for most of the second half, too. By the under-8 media timeout, each team was 4 of 9 from 3. Virginia’s Sam Lewis was 3 of 4 from deep by himself. Cam Boozer was only 1 of 3 behind the arc, but the one make was massive; it cut the margin from four to one — stifling a Virginia run that was beginning to brew.
With 3:10 left, the score was 66-65, Duke clinging to the lead. The Blue Devils white-knuckled a win the rest of the way, pulling all sorts of rabbits from the program’s hat, including an in-unison floor-slap. And they ultimately prevailed in a game that saw 16 lead changes — and in a contest in which they shot 38% from the field and 32% from the 3-point line.
The game ended with Cayden Boozer — who might’ve been known more as Cam’s brother before this week, but Saturday was Duke’s saving grace — dribbling out the clock to a chorus of Blue Devils in Charlotte celebrating the fact that they’d crested yet another mountain, staring at one more proverbial peak.
As Scheyer said on a stage postgame, doused in confetti: “We’re not done yet.”
This story was originally published March 14, 2026 at 11:05 PM.
