Kon Job: Duke Gets Past A Gutty Georgia Tech, 78-70, Despite Injuries To Flagg And Brown

What a second half by Duke!

Georgia Tech played hard as we expected but this game will be remembered for injuries to Maliq Brown and worse, Cooper Flagg.

Brown injured his shoulder again in the first half and left the court unable to stand up then Flagg grabbed a rebound and came down on Baye Ndongo’s foot, with what looked like a high ankle sprain. It was a nightmare start for a team with legitimate national championship aspirations.

The first half had a solid start as Kon Knueppel had two drives and Khaman Maluach two blocks and Cooper Flagg was dominant on defense and the boards. But Duke was shooting poorly early, going 0-6 from three point range and 3-10 overall at the first time out.

Soon enough though, we saw Georgia Tech hitting threes while Duke was not: Tech was 3-5 at the 12 and under timeout while Duke, the best three point shooting team in the ACC, was 0-8 and down 16-8.

Sion James hit a twisting drive followed by a Maluach hook and it looked like things might be turning around, but Duke kept missing from behind the line and then, with about 5:00 left, Maliq Brown left the court clutching the same left shoulder he injured at Virginia.

After Patrick Ngongba blocked a Ngongo shot in the lane, Flagg got another and then Isaiah Evans hit Duke’s first three with 3:18. 26-17.

And just as things began to look up, Flagg went down and stayed down with what looks like an ankle injury.

Ngongba hit back-to-back shots to cut the lead to 29-21.

Evans made it 29-26 as Flagg started to leave the floor, unable to put weight on his foot and assisted by Neil Begovich and Stanley Borden. He was shown in a wheelchair at halftime, which is just an awful development. Fortunately, he returned to the bench still wearing his shoe rather than a boot.

Duke finished the half with a 12-5 run to cut the lead to 31-26 as the offense got better and the defense stiffened up.

Duke tied the game up early in the second 31-31 despite the absence of Flagg and Brown.

Duke showed a lot more heart as they ripped off a 10-0 run, forcing Damon Stoudamire to call a time out with 15:51 to play.

After the time out, Proctor stole the ball for a dunk to put Duke up 38-31.

Threes by Evans and Knueppel helped Duke to a 48-40 lead with 11:03 left. Georgia Tech, so hot and sharp in the first half, had begun to falter.

Ibraham Souare took an elbow to the face from Ngongba with 10:22 left and departed the scene, leaving blood under the basket.

The Blue Devils pulled out to a 54-44 lead with 7:19 to play after another Evans three and the defense was on a completely different level than we saw in the first half. And crucially, Ndongo, who was so effective in the first half, was not nearly as effective at this point.

Knueppel hit Maluach for a alley-oop to put Duke up 56-47 and he tried to do it again but missed and Tech got a basket from Lance Terry to make it 56-49.

Knueppel hit a terrific layup with 4:56 left and hit the and-one to put Duke up 61-50 with 4:56 left and then followed that with another to put Duke up 63-52. However, Duncan Powell followed up with a three to cut it back to eight.

Kneuppel then hit Malauch for another lob to go up 65-55 at the four and under timeout.

Georgia Tech, as we expected they would, showed immense heart, but Duke just played too well after Flagg went out. Knueppel put Duke up 67-58.

Tech cut the lead to 67-61 with 1:27 left but put Knueppel back on the line where he hit both with 1:06 left to put Duke back up by eight then stole the ball an Maluach got a breakaway dunk to give Duke another 10 point lead with :51 to play.

Lance Terry hit a three with 37.3 left and Tech called a quick timeout. They put Knueppel back on the line for another pair of free throws before Powell hit a basket in the lane, then the Yellow Jackets put Knueppel back there again where he hit one of two.

But it was too late for Tech. After a dunk by Ndongo, the Yellow Jackets fouled Knueppel again and he hit both with 14.2 left.

Powell scored again and then Knueppel got back to free throw practice with 5.8 left, hitting both again to give Duke its final 78-70 margin.

Knueppel finished with a career high 28. Malauch had 14 points and nine rebounds while Isaiah Evans had 14 off the bench.

It was a gutty win for the Blue Devils, having lost Flagg and Brown in the first half. Now Duke awaits the winner of UNC vs. Wake Forest.

Notes - the difference between Damon Stoudamire’s Georgia Tech and that of Josh Pastner is just vast...his team showed a ton of heart...Duke shut Ndongo out in the second half other than one basket at the end and a pair of free throws...it’s wild to think how underrated Knueppel is...Maluach showed signs of real growth here too...now we wait to see what the word is on Flagg and Brown...