CHESTNUT HILL — Duke is the ACC’s only program ranked in the Top 25 and that’s the team 16th place Boston College hosted in primetime on Saturday night at Conte Forum.
The No. 3 Blue Devils and freshman phenom Cooper Flagg of Newport, Maine, took the court against the Eagles as a consensus 23.5-point favorite with an over/under betting line of 138.5.
Duke improved to 16-2 and 8-0 in the ACC with an 88-63 victory. The Blue Devils covered the spread by 1.5 points and eclipsed the over by 12.5. BC fell to 9-9 and 1-6 with its fourth straight conference loss. BC resumes ACC play at Virginia on Jan. 21.
Flagg’s final line exceeded his averages in 18 starts this season. The 6-foot-9 swingman scored 28 points, shot 9-of-14 from the field with one trey and was 9-of-11 from the line. He complimented his scoring performance with five rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots.
“He is a first-round draft pick, probably the No. 1 pick,” BC coach Earl Grant said. “Long, talented and plays good basketball and we did a good job on Flagg early.
“But he’s hard to contain and that’s a hard job for any team, not just us. He kind of took command of the game.”
Conte Forum has a capacity crowd of 8,606 and the color of the day was Duke Royal Blue, a testament to the star power of Maine’s favorite son. The game itself was more of a sidebar than the featured event because all eyes were focused on everything Flagg.
“I thought for Coop, what a special turnout,” said Duke coach Jon Scheyer. “This is as close as we are going to get to Maine and we’ve been here a lot and the representation of Duke fans has always been great.
“But this is the best I’ve ever seen it and a lot of it has to do with Maine. That was a special thing to see and obviously he backed it up with his play. It is easy to talk about the scoring, but for me it is the blocks, the rebounds and the timely baskets and his feel for stepping up at the right time.”
The race to eclipse the betting line’s over was a sprint out of the blocks with BC driving the scoring surge. Power forward Chad Venning scored on three straight baby hooks and guard Josh Beadle, a graduate transfer from Clemson, attacked the baseline to give the Eagles a 13-9 lead into the first media timeout.
“I felt like coming into the game we all felt like underdogs and it made us play even harder,” said Venning. “I was just trying to work within the flow of the offense and I have been doing a good job so far in my one-on-one matchups.”
The Eagles continued to attack the paint while the Blue Devils were bricking their perimeter shots with uncommon regularity. Redshirt freshman forward Jayden Hastings scored two layups with a free throw to give BC an 18-13 lead into the second media timeout.
Duke took its first lead, 21-20, when junior guard Tyrese Proctor (20 points) potted a 3-ball from the top of the key with 8:37 to play. Flagg completed a 3-point to put the Blue Devils up 33-27 with 3:12 on the clock.
Flagg brought the house down with a dunk with 50 seconds remaining and Duke led 40-34 at the half. BC shot 58.3% from the floor (14-of-24) in the first half, the highest percentage by any team in either half against the Blue Devils this season.
“We had to play four guards which was not something we’ve had to do a lot,” said Grant. “We focused on preparation and came out with a good plan and got more confident.
“The atmosphere was unbelievable and if you weren’t ready to play, you need to choose a different sport.”
Flagg opened the second half with two straight lay-ins that put the Devils up by double digits, 46-36. During the ensuing inbound, Flagg got tangled up with BC graduate guard Roger McFarlane. Flagg was on the business end of McFarlane’s forearm shiver to the face, a visible act of unsportsmanlike conduct that met with oral disapproval from all corners of the house.
Flagg countered with a windmill dunk that put Duke up 55-43 with 14:11 to play. Flagg’s slammer was the opening salvo of the final scene as Duke outscored BC 35-20 to the buzzer.
“I thought our second half was really good and give Boston College a ton of credit, they came out very physical and ready to play,” Scheyer said.
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