Clemson clamps down: 3 takeaways from Duke's first ACC loss of the season

CLEMSON, S.C. — 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 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 and that turnover allowed Clemson to escape with a 77-71 win over the Blue Devils Saturday night at Littlejohn Coliseum.

The loss snapped Duke’s 16-game winning streak, which had been the nation’s longest, and prevented the Blue Devils 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 on Saturday.

Instead, Duke (20-3, 12-1 ACC) saw its perfect ACC record ruined as it suffered its first loss since Nov. 26.

On the way to scoring 18 points, Flagg made just two of his first 11 shots in the game 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.

Then, with Clemson leading 73-71, Duke called timeout to set up a play. The ball was inbounded to Flagg, who drove to the lane, but both of his feet came out from under him. He fell to the court and was called for traveling.

Viktor Lakhin led Clemson (19-5, 11-2 ACC) with 22 points while Chase Hunter, 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.

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 four 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.

After making just two of his first 11 shots, Flagg got going. He hit two free throws, 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, Flagg 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.

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.