Duke basketball’s dream of an undefeated run through the ACC ended Saturday night at Clemson.
The second-ranked Blue Devils fell 77-71 to the Tigers, who snapped Duke’s 16-game winning streak with a court-storming victory at Littlejohn Coliseum.
The Blue Devils (20-3, 12-1 ACC) had a 71-70 lead with 58 seconds left, but Duke missed its final three shots and Clemson (19-5, 11-2) scored the final seven points to pull off the upset.
“For me, it’s our defense. For me, it’s the loose balls. Give (Clemson) all the credit in the world,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “. … We just fell a play short. For me, it’s the defense.”
Here’s what went wrong at Clemson in Duke’s first loss since Thanksgiving week.
Cooper Flagg, one of the favorites to win national player of the year, finished with 18 points and drilled a 3-pointer to give Duke a one-point lead with 58 seconds left. But it was an inefficient night for Flagg – the projected No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft – who missed 11 of his 17 shots.
The 6-foot-9 forward gave Duke a chance by scoring 14 of the Blue Devils’ final 17 points, but he slipped on the floor for a critical turnover with 14 seconds left and Clemson made free throws to ice it.
Duke missed 20 of its 29 shots in the second half and Flagg made four of the nine buckets.
Duke entered with a rebounding margin close to plus-9 before Clemson flipped the script with a dominant performance on the glass. The Blue Devils were out-rebounded by 13 against the Tigers, who had 11 offensive rebounds for 15 second-chance points. Ian Schieffelin had 10 rebounds and added 12 points in a double-double performance. No Duke player had more than five rebounds and the Blue Devils were beaten on the boards for the third game in a row.
Schieffelin did most of the dirty work against Duke, but Viktor Lakhin presented the biggest problem for the Blue Devils. Lakhin scored 22 points, matching Duke’s points in the paint as the Tigers finished with 11 layups and a dunk. The Devils were outscored 40-22 on the interior, missing 11 of their 18 layup attempts.
Lahkin and the Tigers stayed in attack mode, getting Duke’s top big men – Khaman Maluach and Maliq Brown – in foul trouble. According to KenPom.com, Duke had the best two-point defense (41.7%) in the nation entering its game at Clemson. The Tigers attacked that strength and made it a weakness to beat the Blue Devils, finishing 26-for-41 (63.4%) from inside the arc.
Duke’s defense has been the driving force behind its dominance this season. On Saturday night at Clemson, the Blue Devils’ defense was the reason Duke lost as the Tigers became the first team this season to shoot better than 50% against the Devils.