Clemson’s Stunning Victory Over Duke: A Night to Remember
On a thrilling Saturday night in Clemson, South Carolina, the Clemson Tigers delivered a performance that will be remembered for years to come. For the first 36 minutes of the game, Clemson managed to keep Duke’s star player, Cooper Flagg, under control. In a dramatic finish, Chase Hunter sealed the deal from the free-throw line, ending Duke’s impressive 16-game winning streak.
The Tigers’ big men were instrumental in this victory, as they managed to flummox Flagg, who had only four points with six minutes left in the game. Clemson dominated No. 2 Duke in the paint and on the boards, ultimately securing a 77-71 win.
“The second half,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell remarked, “that’s about as good as we can play.”
This remarkable performance came on the heels of one of Clemson’s worst outings of the season, a triple-overtime loss to Georgia Tech. In that game, forward Viktor Lakhin was limited to just 15 minutes due to foul trouble. In response, Brownell emphasized one key word to Lakhin: composure.
“He probably circled that word 20 times talking to me,” Lakhin shared after the game.
The lesson paid off handsomely. Lakhin finished the game with 22 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots. Alongside Ian Schieffelin, he effectively stymied the highly-touted Flagg, who struggled to find his rhythm.
Clemson outscored Duke 40-22 in the paint and held a 36-23 advantage in rebounding. Brownell had anticipated that Clemson (19-5, 11-2 ACC) could exploit an advantage near the basket, expecting Duke (20-3, 12-1) to focus defensively on stopping the Tigers’ perimeter shooting.
Schieffelin’s dunk with 6:39 remaining put Clemson ahead by five points. At that juncture, Flagg had only four points on a dismal 2-of-11 shooting performance. However, Flagg responded with two free throws and a three-pointer, halting a 15-5 Clemson run.
Flagg scored 14 points over the next five minutes and had the ball with 14 seconds left, with a chance to tie the game. As he drove to the basket, he slipped on a wet spot on the court and was called for traveling. Clemson capitalized on this opportunity and never looked back.
“He got the advantage downhill, and I’m taking that any day of the week,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer commented. “But there was a wet spot, and sometimes that’s how it goes. But he really made every play in the last couple minutes just to will us.”
Flagg’s uneven performance, which Scheyer attributed to “Coop being Coop” after a shaky first half, might indicate the freshman’s struggle to endure a physically demanding stretch of games. Scheyer noted that Flagg, who would have been a high school senior had he not reclassified, had faced challenges in practice the previous week.
“We put so much on his shoulders,” Scheyer explained. “I have to help take some of that off because it’s that time — we’ve got to get his body refreshed, reenergized. We’ve got to get him back. We know there’s more there, and we have to help him recover.”
Despite the impressive defensive effort against Flagg, Brownell and the Tigers were not revealing any secret strategies.
“We didn’t do anything nobody else hasn’t done before,” Brownell stated.
According to Lakhin, it was simply a well-executed game plan. As the fans chanted “overrated” in the final seconds before storming the court after defeating the No. 2 team in the country, Lakhin expressed optimism for the future.
- “[Flagg] is a great player,” Lakhin acknowledged. “We did a good job on him, but he’ll bounce back. Hopefully, we’ll see him again in the [ACC] tournament and we’ll do as good of a job then.”
Originally Written by: David Hale
