Duke Dominates Louisville In The Second Half To Win ACC Championship #23

And did so with significant adversity too

Duke won its 23rd ACC championship Saturday night with a very impressive 73-62 win over Louisville. For the Cardinals, it was only their second loss since losing to Kentucky on December 14th. It was the second title for Jon Scheyer in three years and one of the more remarkable titles in Blue Devil history. Vic Bubas’s win in his first season was a major surprise. The 1978 championship marked Duke’s return to the top of the ACC after a 12-year absence. This one though is just as sweet as those two. Why?

Because Duke did it without Cooper Flagg and also without Maliq Brown.

Flagg is highly unusual. People talk about glue guys but usually they’re guys who find a less celebrated role doing the dirty work.

Think of Flagg instead as a sort of super glue that goes into a bucket of water and flows to wherever it is most needed.

Points?

Check.

Defense?

Check.

Ball-handling?

Check.

Assists?

Check.

We could go on, but that’s a great way to look at how Flagg contributes: he just flows to wherever his team needs help to win, and he seals the leaks.

Duke only had That Guy for one half in Charlotte. His teammates came back in the second half against Georgia Tech, had a dominant first half against UNC before nearly letting the win slip away in the second (but it didn’t) and then played a confident Louisville team on relatively even terms in the first half before they started to pull away with about 13:00 left in the second.

Anyone who still has doubts about Duke after this weekend better think again. This team is really good, and it’s clearly not just Flagg.

The first half saw Duke and Louisville on basically even terms with a ton of intensity on both sides.

Chucky Hepburn started off hot for the Cardinals, scoring the first seven points for Louisville. Duke was more balanced early, with Khaman Maluach hitting an early dunk, Kon Knueppel hitting a pair of free throws and a layup.

Isaiah Evans followed up with a pair of threes and the half was close until Louisville got hot in the last couple of minutes. Knueppel scored Duke’s last basket before halftime with 2:15 to go to put the Blue Devils up 33-31. Louisville heated up with Terrence Edwards hitting a three, Aboubacar Traore hitting a basket, then Edwards hitting another to put the ‘Ville up 38-33 at the end of the half.

The first half was really physical and Duke had a real issue with turnovers, racking up seven, we think. The Blue Devils finished with 10 on the night.

The Cardinals challenged Duke on the most basic level in the first, sheer toughness, but things would change in the second.

Duke came out and not only matched Louisville’s intensity but topped it and not by a little bit.

The Blue Devils were a totally different team: everyone was a hardass. Knueppel has been all along - he is the king of the floor burns - but the guards were outstanding. Tyrese Proctor wasn’t just killing it on offense, where he had 18 points, he helped do a number on Hepburn.

After his hot start, Hepburn finished the game shooting 5-16 for 14 points. He also had three turnovers and just one steal. We say just one because he has been a superb defender all year and was named the best defender in the conference last week.

Terrence Edwards, who Duke tormented last season when he was with James Madison, and again in Duke’s win over Louisville in December, wasn’t having it: he racked up 29 in one of his best games of the year.

But Sion Edwards had one of his best games for Duke with 15 points, six rebounds and two assists and between Proctor and James, Edwards wasn't able to help the Cardinals fly late when they really needed points.

And the rest of the team?

James Scott had six points, Noah Waterman five and J’Vonne Hadley six. Traore had two off the bench.

Louisville surely missed Reyne Smith, who wasn’t available, but Duke missed people too. What can you do? You go with who you have.

Ultimately it came down to defense, toughness and desire, and in the end, Duke broke Louisville and imposed its will on them.

Duke outscored the ‘Ville 40-24 in the second half, which is pretty dominant. They also held Louisville, which shot 55 percent in the first half, to 27 percent in the second.

We probably haven’t said enough about the emergence of Patrick Ngongba. When Brown was out, he came in and was competent. We weren't sure then that he could help, but he didn’t hurt.

Now, you can see a very good player emerging. He’s really smart offensively. You see it on his cuts to the basket and some of his individual moves, but you also see it in his passing, which has become really good and surprisingly, at least to us, he led Duke here with three blocks. We’ve caught on to the offense, but Saturday’s defense was a total surprise, at least to us.

Look, Louisville is a very good team, as we saw in the first half. But Duke took them apart, and did it without Flagg and Brown. We thought that the Blue Devils had a great shot at winning, but if it turned out to be a Flagg-free stress test that they failed, well that would have been valuable too.

As it turned out, it was more of an affirmation of the rest of the team than a referendum on Flagg’s importance. This is going to be a really confident team in the NCAA tournament.

Knueppel ended up winning the Tournament MVP, which is pretty cool for a freshman. After the game, Knueppel said “two done and one to go,” referring to the ACC regular season championship and now the ACC Tournament championship as well and, hopefully next, the NCAA tournament championship. That journey starts tomorrow when the NCAA field is revealed.

Notes - Duke is now 31-3 and the worst they could finish now is 31-4...Evans got minimal minutes in the second half which might make sense given how physical Louisville was...Scheyer said he told his team at halftime that they didn't have the toughness they needed to win a championship...they sure found it...with 23 ACC Tournament titles, Duke now leads UNC, with 18, by five...12 of those have come since 2001...Duke announced Saturday that Flagg will be back for the NCAA tournament...no word yet on Brown...