Despite having their worst first half of basketball this season the Duke Blue Devils defeated Georgia Tech, 78 – 70, to advance to the ACC Tournament semi finals.
If the poor shooting wasn’t enough (11-30 from the floor, including 2-16 from three), both Cooper Flagg and Maliq Brown left the game with injuries late in the first half. Flagg would return to the bench in the second half, but did not play. Brown left the arena on a stretcher and would not return.
“Maliq was in a lot of pain and he re-dislocated his shoulder,” Duke head coach Jon Scheyer said after the win. “That’s why we got him a stretcher just to tolerate the pain. He was in a lot of pain. He’s at the hospital now.”
“Cooper just came down and sprained his ankle. X-rays were negative, which is great. We just have to understand there’s going to be swelling and see how he recovers and how he goes from there.”
Kon Knueppel led the way for Duke with 28 points – a career high. Isaiah Evans and Khaman Maluach both added 14.
When the Blue Devils’ offense was sputtering, it was their defense that kept them in the game and a 14-5 run and the end of the period trimmed at once 14 point deficit to five at the break.
Duke opened the 2nd half on a 12-0 run, taking the lead with 16:56 remaining in the game and never giving it up.
“Our response to start the second half, we had different guys stepping up,” Scheyer continued Mason starts right away, Isaiah continued, Kon throughout the game. I thought our defense was back to being what it should be on that end in the second half, and we saw the ball go in.”
That was a different kind of game for us and I couldn’t be more proud of the heart, the character, the competitiveness of our team.”
The Blue Devils will play the winner of North Carolina vs Wake Forest Friday evening in the ACC Tournament Semifinals.
