Cooper Flagg usually takes over Duke basketball games with his scoring, but he shined in other areas of the game on Monday night against Virginia.
While Flagg was still tied for the team lead with 17 points – alongside Kon Knueppel and Isaiah Evans – he set a new career high with 14 rebounds in the 18-point victory. It was his first game with at least 10 rebounds since January 7 against Pittsburgh and his seventh double-double of the season.
It did not take long for Flagg to reach the mark in the Blue Devil domination, recording 10 points and 11 rebounds in just 18 first half minutes. He would add to his total in the second half while only playing 12 minutes and watching his team cruise to the finish line.
Overall, the rebounding numbers were impressive for Duke – pulling down 20 more boards than Virginia, 41-21 – despite seeing backup center Maliq Brown injured late in the first half and starting center Khaman Maluach grabbing only four rebounds in the victory.
The Blue Devils have outrebounded its opponents in all but six games this season and its margin on the glass against the Cavaliers was the second largest rebounding difference in a game this season for Duke, only trailing its performance against Miami when it won the rebounding battle by 21.
Knueppel nearly matched his season high of rebounds, eight against Wake Forest on January 25, with seven boards against Virginia. He recorded the same amount of rebounds in Duke’s win over Arizona on November 22.
Nine different players pulled down at least one rebound for the Blue Devils.
Jon Scheyer will lead his team to Madison Square Garden on Saturday night (8:00 p.m. ET, FOX) for a rare late-February non-conference matchup against Illinois (17-10, 9-8 Big Ten) before returning to ACC play for the last two weeks of the regular season.