Winners of four straight and nine of its last 10, No. 7 Duke begins a three-game road swing Wednesday night at Virginia. The Blue Devils are in sole possession of first place in the ACC standings and own the tiebreaker over second-place Notre Dame. The game is the 176th in the series, which Duke leads 122-53, including 42-35 in Charlottesville (6-3 at John Paul Jones Arena). Each of the last 13 games in the series have been decided by 10 points or fewer, including six of the last eight decided by one or two points. The average margin of victory in the last 13 is 4.3 points.
About Duke
- Leading the ACC in both field goal defense (.406) and three-point defense (.297), the Blue Devils have allowed opponents to shoot .282 from three-point range since Jan. 1 – the best three-point defense by power conference team in that span.
- Duke is 25th nationally this season in defending the three-point line (.297), 45th in field goal defense (.406), 12th in blocked shots (5.5) and seventh in scoring margin (+14.8) – leads ACC in each category.
- The Blue Devils are 6-2 on the road this season — 6-1 in on the road in the ACC with a scoring margin of +11.9, which is on pace to be Duke’s largest on the road in the ACC since 2002 (+12.7).
- Duke enters the game with the nation’s third best assist/turnover ratio of 1.62. The Blue Devils also rank top 20 nationally in field goal shooting (.484, ranked 17th in the NCAA) and assists (17.4, lead the ACC and ranked ninth in the NCAA).
- Junior Wendell Moore Jr., is the only player ranked in the ACC’s top 10 for field goal percentage, assists, steals and assist/turnover ratio. He ranks sixth in field goal shooting (.517), third in assists (4.56), ninth in steals (1.59) and fifth in assist/turnover ratio (2.20).
- Sophomore Mark Williams, whose tip-in dunk was the game-winner against Wake Forest with 0.4 remaining last Tuesday, is averaging 13.6 points and shooting 29-of-37 (.784) from the field over the last five games. His 68 dunks are the fourth most in a season at Duke.
- A finalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, Williams leads the ACC and ranks 11th nationally in blocked shots. He is also the nation’s only player shooting .700+ from the field and .700+ at the free throw line (minimum 100 field goal attempts).
- Freshman AJ Griffin is averaging 18.5 points and shooting 33-of-54 (.611) from the field and 15-of-25 (.600) from three-point range over Duke’s last five ACC road wins. For the season, Griffin is the team’s second-leading scorer in road games with 14.3 points.
About Virginia
- Virginia has won five of its last six and is coming off a 74-71 win at Miami on Saturday getting to 17-10 overall and 11-6 in ACC play.
- Leading the ACC and 11th nationally in scoring defense, the Cavaliers are yielding just 60.1 points.
- Reece Beekman ranks second nationally in assist/turnover ratio (3.53) and 38th in steals (2.0 spg) and Kadin Shedrick ranks 33rd in blocks shots per game (2.2).
- UVA is led by its backcourt of Kihei Clark (9.9 ppg & 4.1 apg) and Reece Beekman (7.7 ppg, 5.0 apg, 3.3 rpg & 2.0 spg), and the additions of transfers Jayden Gardner (15.3 ppg & 7.1 rpg) and Armaan Franklin (11.6 ppg).
- Jayden Gardner (ECU) – 15.3 points and Armaan Franklin (Indiana) — 11.6 points lead the Cavaliers in scoring.
- Virginia (1.43) is third to Duke (1.62) in assist/turnover ratio and the teams are also the top two in the ACC in blocked shots – Duke at 5.52 and Virginia at 4.67.
- Only four teams have scored 70+ versus Virginia – Iowa (75-74 loss), North Carolina (74-58 loss), NC State (77-63 loss) and Miami (74-71 loss).
- Jayden Gardner ranks fifth in field goal percentage (51.7%), seventh in free throw percentage (82.1%), eighth in rebounding (7.1 rpg) and 12th in scoring (15.3 ppg).
- Kihei Clark ranks third in minutes (35.2). fifth in assists (4.1 apg) and seventh in assist/turnover ratio (1.83).
Duke vs UVA
Duke leads the series, 122-53, and has won six of the last 10.
In Charlottesville, Duke leads 42-35 and has won six of the nine meetings at John Paul Jones Arena.
The last 13 games in the series (Duke, 8-5) have been decided by 10 points or fewer with the average margin just 4.3 points. Five of the last six games in the series have been one or two-point decisions.
Earlier this season at Cameron Indoor, Virginia’s Reece Beekman hit a go-ahead three-pointer with 1.1 seconds remaining to give the Cavaliers the 69-68 win.
In last year’s meeting, Jaemyn Brakefield scored the go-ahead basket on a reverse layup with 1:58 left and Duke came up with a final-possession stop to beat the No. 7 Cavaliers, 66-65, at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
UVA has not won back-to-back games vs. Duke since winning four straight from March 12, 1994-Jan. 13, 1996.
How to Watch
Time: 7:00 p.m. (ET)
TV: ESPN (Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas)
Stream: Watch ESPN
Radio: Blue Devils Sports Network (David Shumate, John Roth)
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