The Duke basketball team continued to prove its more than just one player. It has played two full games plus one half without Cooper Flagg and there has been very little dropoff.
The Blue Devils finished off its impressive stretch without the ACC Player of the Year with a 73-62 victory in the ACC Tournament Championship over Louisville.
It was a complete turnaround for Jon Scheyer’s team after trailing by five, 38-33, at halftime with Louisville entering the locker room on a 9-2 run, which was short lived after Duke rattled off a 15-2 run early in the second half to take control of the game.
Sion James started the avalanche for the Blue Devils, and it was capped off by a 3-pointer from Tyrese Proctor.
Proctor would finish the night with 19 points and all of his six made field goals coming from 3-point range but Duke’s freshmen, Kon Knueppel, Khaman Maluach, and Patrick Ngongba continued to shine in the postseason by combining for 33 points.
The offensive execution of the Blue Devils was nearly flawless in the second half shooting 45.5-percent from the floor. There was no letdown like the previous night against North Carolina as Duke outscored Louisville by 16 after the break.
It led by as many as 13 points while closing the game in the final minutes.
What was more impressive was its defense, holding the Cards to 25.7-percent in the second half.
Duke will likely be a No. 1 seed in the East Region when the NCAA Tournament bracket is revealed on Sunday evening (6:00 p.m. ET, CBS), meaning its opening weekend would be played in Raleigh, North Carolina and second weekend in Newark, New Jersey.
It will waits on the status of Cooper Flagg but Dan Gavitt, the NCAA's Senior Vice President of Basketball, told CBS on Saturday that the Blue Devils have told the NCAA Tournament selection committee that he will be available for the tournament.