How costly was Duke's 78-70 win over Georgia Tech?

Next man up, with Flagg, Brown out

“What a revolting development that is.”

I did not expect to wake up this morning quoting Chester A. Riley.

Maybe “survive and advance” works better.

Duke opened ACC Tournament play Thursday like they hit the snooze button and went back to sleep. Then they lost Maliq Brown to a shoulder injury, his fourth injury of the season.

Then Cooper Flagg landed wrong grabbing a rebound and went out with a sprained ankle that kept him out for the rest of the game, severity TBD.

Duke trailed by five at the half.

But Flagg’s classmates Kon Knueppel, Khaman Maluach, Isaiah Evans and Patrick Ngongba put on what David Cutcliffe called their “big-boy pants” and seized control with a run that spanned both halves.

In fact Duke freshmen not named Cooper Flagg combined for 63 of Duke’s 78 points/

Duke’s lead always seemed a bit tenuous. But they held on for a 78-70 win.

The Blue Devils were in trouble early as the Techsters kept knocking down 3s. Duncan Powell made three in the first eight minutes or so, followed by Darrion Sutton, while Baye Ndongo dominated inside. Tech led 16-8, then 26-12 as Duke followed brick with brick, missing their first 13 from beyond the arc.

The unthinkable happened, with Duke down 26-17 and just under three minutes left in the half. Flagg skied for a rebound, landed on a Tech player’s foot and writhed in pain, as silence engulfed the arena.

Tech followed with another triple and Duke was down a dozen. With Flagg out Duke began its comeback with two baskets by Ngongba, a 3 by Evans and two freebies by Tyrese Proctor.

“We were just going to stay together,” Evans said. “Obviously, Coop is a huge part of our team. It hurts to see him going down, same with 'Liq, but it's next man up, and we're going to keep picking our guys up.”

Okay, “next man up,” is the hoariest of sports cliches. But it ain’t brag if you can back it up and Duke backed it up.

Duke’s 9-2 run to close the half made it 31-26 Georgia Tech.

Duke continued the onslaught after intermission, scoring the first 12 points of the second half, a 21-2 run that restored order.

Scheyer cited “our response to start the second half, and different guys stepping up, Mason starts right away, Isaiah continued, Kon throughout the game. I thought we were really just -- I thought our defense was back to being what it should be on that end in the second half, and we saw the ball go in.”

Duke never did blow it open; the biggest lead was 11, several times.

But Duke--especially Knueppel-refused to let Tech back in the game. Knueppel was magnificent, 28 points, five rebounds, eight assists, some tough baskets inside. Recently I suggested that Knueppel might have been ACC Player of the Year had Flagg not reclassified and that’s what I had in mind. It wasn’t just the stat line, as impressive as it was, it was his toughness, his refusal to wallow in despair for even a fraction of a second.

He was joined in double figures by Malauach and Evans, each with 14 points, the former with nine rebounds. Duke had a 38-31 advantage on the boards and turned it over only eight times.

There’s no way to minimize losing the nation’s best player and another solid rotation player. I suspect Scheyer and a staff down one key component won’t be getting much sleep heading into tomorrows’s match against North Carolina. But Cooper Flagg is first among equals. Duke has lots of talent without him and Scheyer built this team for toughness. Time to make a toughness withdrawal.