Kon Knueppel, Cooper Flagg help Duke pull away to beat rival UNC, clinch ACC title
19 hours ago
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Freshman Kon Knueppel scored 17 points to help No. 2 Duke beat rival North Carolina 82-69 on Saturday night and clinch the outright Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title.
Cooper Flagg added 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists despite first-half foul trouble for the Blue Devils (28-3, 19-1).
Duke blew a 15-point first-half lead and trailed by seven midway early after the break, but responded with 12 consecutive points to turn the game and silence a roaring hostile crowd.
The Blue Devils are now in position to rise to No. 1 in Monday’s AP Top 25 poll with top-ranked Auburn losing its past two games.
Fifth-year senior RJ Davis scored 20 points in his final home game for Tar Heels (20-12), who were blown out in the first meeting but responded with far more resilience this time before Duke asserted control to stretch out the lead in the final seven minutes.
Takeaways
Duke: The Final Four favorite completed the first 19-1 regular-season slate since the ACC moved to 20 games in 2019-20.
UNC: The Tar Heels had won six straight coming in with their best play of the season to play their way back into better positioning for an NCAA bid. But this was their last certain chance to add a resume-topping win to help that case.
Key moment
UNC led 59-53 when Duke made its move with 12 straight points in a 15-2 burst that put the Blue Devils ahead to stay. That included Knueppel’s backdoor layup for the lead, while versatile defender Maliq Brown had a big 3-pointer in his return from injury that pushed Duke to a 68-61 lead with 8 1/2 minutes left.
Key stat
UNC missed 22 of its last 27 shots in the final 15-plus minutes as Duke made its move.
Up next
The ACC Tournament starts Tuesday in Charlotte. Duke opens play as the 1-seed in Thursday’s quarterfinals. UNC is the 5-seed and will play in Wednesday’s second round.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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