How Duke basketball shook off a nightmare scenario to secure ACC Tournament championship

CHARLOTTE — Duke basketball was facing a nightmare scenario in the first half of its first ACC Tournament game on Thursday at Spectrum Center.

The top-ranked Blue Devils rode into Charlotte on the high of a dominant run through the ACC, finishing the regular season with 19 wins in 20 conference games. They won 17 of those by double digits, facing little resistance along the way.

But there was an instant shift in the final five minutes of Duke’s first postseason game. The Blue Devils trailed Georgia Tech and lost two of their top players to injuries, watching Maliq Brown re-injure his shoulder before Cooper Flagg rolled his ankle.

Facing adversity for the first time since its loss at Clemson, Duke responded with a comeback win against the Yellow Jackets before staving off a second-half rally from rival UNC.

The Blue Devils capped their three-game stretch with another comeback victory, using a dominant second second half to beat Louisville 73-63 for the ACC Tournament championship. It's the 23rd tournament title for the Blue Devils.

“I think the thing I told them, though, 'You don't have to try to do anything special, you just have to do the simple things really well and then those special plays will naturally happen,'” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said after becoming the first ACC coach to win two ACC Tournaments in his first three seasons.

“I thought that's exactly what happened for Khaman (Maluach) and Kon (Knueppel) and some of our other guys (against Louisville).”

With Flagg and Brown sidelined, Kon Knueppel averaged 21 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists to earn ACC Tournament MVP. He had 18 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists in the championship.

“We knew we had to step up with Maliq and Cooper, who were out, who are, obviously, super, super important players for us,” Knueppel said. “But I thought everybody contributed and everybody pitched in, and we didn't need any Superman performances or anything like that. Everybody just stepped up and added to the team.”

Tyrese Proctor missed his first 12 attempts from 3-point range in the ACC Tournament before making a career-high six 3-pointers against the Cardinals to finish with a team-high 19 points.

Following the title-clinching win, Proctor said the tournament run just shows “how good” the Blue Devils (31-3) are this season.

“We show we’re more than Cooper. We want him to come back straight away and as soon as possible,” the junior guard said after winning his second ACC Tournament championship.

“Him going out, Maliq going out, it was tough. Getting down to Georgia Tech was tough. I think just how resilient we are … it just shows how together we are.”

Togetherness was the buzzword for several Blue Devils after their net-cutting ceremony and locker-room-soaked celebration. Tulane transfer Sion James was the first player to climb up the ladder, cutting his piece of the net before showing it to the fans and letting out a yell.

“We went through some adversity this weekend, which was really, really good,” said James, who scored 12 of his 15 points against Louisville in the second half.

“We grew up a lot this weekend. We’d been beating teams pretty good. It feels great, it’s awesome. But we learned to win a different way this weekend. We learned that we gotta grind some out and we showed ourselves that we have the ability to do that.”

After turning what could have been a nightmare into a delightful experience in Charlotte, Duke also showed the rest of the nation it has multiple routes to San Antonio.

Rodd Baxley covers Duke, North Carolina and N.C. State for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his ACC coverage on X/Twitter or Bluesky: @RoddBaxley. Got questions regarding those teams? Send them to rbaxley@fayobserver.com.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: How Duke basketball won ACC Tournament without Cooper Flagg

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