DURHAM, N.C. — Duke and Clemson played 40 minutes of basketball Saturday disguised as hand-to-hand combat.

The ACC’s two best defensive teams went at it and there would be a lot of banging bodies and flesh-pressing and players crashing to the hardwood at Cameron Indoor Stadium. It wasn’t pretty basketball but it was big-boy basketball as the two teams at the top of the ACC standings strained and competed.

When the bout ended, the No. 4 Blue Devils had surged in the second half to pound out a 67-54 victory over the No. 20 Tigers.

Cameron Boozer, always the focus of Clemson’s collapsing defense, had 18 points and eight rebounds for the Blue Devils, now 12-1 in the ACC and 23-2 overall. Isaiah Evans followed with 17 points and Cayden Boozer came off the bench to contribute 12 points and the pace Duke coach Jon Scheyer wants.

“We needed a game like this,” Cameron said. “An elite defensive performance, a lot of effort. They’re a great team, second in our league, so we saw this as a championship game coming in and played with that kind of energy. It was a great team win overall.”

The Tigers (20-6, 10-3 ACC), coming off a homecourt loss to Virginia Tech, came into Cameron to make life miserable for the Blue Devils. The goal: get the Devils caught up in a possession-by-possession battle, rely on their defense, keep it close and try to win at the end.

The plan worked well enough in the first half as Duke led, 31-26. Cameron had the Crazies at full throat in the opening seconds, stealing the ball and thundering down court for a posterizing dunk over 6-11 forward Carter Welling.

But the rest of the half was more of a slog as the Devils took too many 3s, center Patrick Ngongba II quickly fell into foul trouble and the Tigers forced some rushed shots by Duke.

“The first half I thought we were punch for punch,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said.

Clemson’s defense broke down in the second half. Evans was left alone for a 3, Boozer had an open layup and Evans hit another jumper.

The 7-0 spurt pushed the Duke lead to 38-26 and the Blue Devils only added to it. A pair of 3’s by Boozer and then a lob dunk by the big man made it a 47-31 cushion and Cayden followed with a driving basket and three-point play.

“We just could not score enough to put any game pressure on them,” Brownell said.

Duke’s defense was relentless in the second half, Clemson missed 16 of their first 19 shots as the Devils challenged everything. The Tigers finished at 35.1% from the field for the game.

“I thought our defense was top-notch today,” Scheyer said. “I thought we made it very difficult on them.

“Our defense made them take some tough shots, and we just had to keep going. That was exactly the kind of game I thought it would be.”

Sitting courtside and taking it all in were Cooper Flagg, Tyrese Proctor and Khaman Maluach, now former Blue Devils after taking Duke to the Final Four a year ago before heading to the NBA. The Devils were 19-1 in the ACC last season — the one loss at Clemson — and it took a pair of free throws by Proctor with a second left to lift Duke past the Tigers by a point two years ago at Cameron.

For the Blue Devils, it was the 22nd consecutive win over the Tigers in Durham. Clemson’s last win at Cameron was in January 1995 when Rick Barnes coached the Tigers.

Ngongba back for Devils

Ngongba was back and playing Saturday and back in the starting lineup. After missing the Pitt game Tuesday night, the center had protective wraps on both hands – he injured the left hand last week at UNC.

But Ngongba’s playing time in the first half was limited to four minutes before he picked up his second foul and headed to the bench for the rest of the period. Ngongba was matched up defensively with Godfrey and was called for the fouls in the banging in the low post.

“For whatever it is we need him in the game,” Scheyer said. “Part of our strength is we have three guys in Maliq (Brown), Pat and Cam that we just rotate, and we can wear on you. When you take out one of them, it doesn’t have that same effect.”

Ngongba had almost 19 minutes of playing time, once showing off a nifty baseline move for a basket.

Settling for shots early

Scheyer had mentioned often this season that the Devils will too easily “settle” for perimeter shots out of the halfcourt offense, and they did Saturday in the first half.

Nogongba, Brown and Cam Boozer all took 3-pointers from the top of the key in the opening half, combining to go 0-5. Clemson didn’t mind that and tempted the Devils to take it.

“I thought their physicality knocked us back with some softer finishes and a couple of wasted possessions, a couple of turnovers,” Scheyer said. “But our defense was right there. They scored 26 points.”

Other than Evans, and possibly Sarr from the corners, the Devils are a spotty 3-point shooting team. Of Duke’s 28 first-half shots, 18 were from 3 and the Devils were 6 of 18 as Evans had three of the six makes.

There was a better inside/out mix offensively in the second half and it helped that the Devils made their 3’s. Boozer knocked down two 3’s from the right of the key.

“We have to be an inside/outside team,” Scheyer said. “But they make it hard on you, make it hard to get in the paint and get the shots you want. In the second half, we did a better job of just settling in and playing to our strengths.

“There was much better balance. We settled a little too much in the first half.”

Different kind of game

Referees Tim Clougherty, Mark Schnur and Tommy Morrissey had their hands full Saturday with both teams determined to do whatever it took, physically, to stop the other.

Scheyer was the first coach to show displeasure, a few minutes into the game. Brownell would soon follow, doing a heated pirouette and flinging a fist on the sideline after a call was made against the Tigers

Basketball has changed and morphed into a different game through the years but the amount of contact allowed, without fouls being called, is one of the biggest.

In the first half, Cam Boozer took a beating, more so than he has all season. Then, Clemson’s RJ Godfrey was called for swatting Boozer’s arm – a harmless enough play.

Godfrey was perplexed. So was Brownell.

Ngongba was called for a touch foul early in the second half. Scheyer was perplexed.

Basketball is a game of adjustments and that includes adjusting to the way the game is called.

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