ACC Basketball

Flagg and James Lead No. 4 Duke Past Virginia Tech, 88-65

by
SportsCarolinaMonthly
January 1, 2025

Courtesy GoDuke.com

DURHAM, N.C. – A 24-point outing from freshman Cooper Flagg and a double-double from Sion James helped Duke (11-2, 3-0 ACC) defeat Virginia Tech (5-8, 0-2 ACC), 88-65, at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Tuesday, Dec. 31. Flagg added six assists and four steals, while James’ 10-point, 11-rebound effort tallied the Sugar Hill, Georgia, native’s second career double-double. Six total Blue Devils finished with at least 10 points, as Tyrese Proctor (13), Kon Knueppel (13), Isaiah Evans (12), and Mason Gillis (10) joined Flagg and James.

With the 24 points, Flagg secured his sixth 20-point game of his career and eclipsed 200 career points. Coupled with his 107 rebounds, Flagg is just the sixth player in Duke history to score at least 200 points and grab at least 100 rebounds within Duke’s first 13 games of the respective season.

Duke finished 15-of-15 (1.000) from the free throw line, going perfect from the charity stripe for the first time since the Blue Devils shot 4-of-4 at Syracuse on Feb. 18, 2023, and just the fifth time in Duke history on 10 or more attempts. HOW IT HAPPENED

Cooper Flagg quickly put Duke on the board, laying in the game’s first bucket inside the first 20 seconds of the contest. The Blue Devils kept the Hokies without a field goal for over four minutes before a dunk with 15:44 on the clock pushed Virginia Tech in front, 4-2. A three-point-play from Flagg reestablished Duke’s lead, 5-4, out of the first media timeout.
Mason Gillis and Sion James joined Flagg in the scoresheet, as Duke tied the Hokies, 12-12, following a James dunk. A four-point-play from Flagg gave the freshman 12 points in less than 12 minutes of play and the Blue Devils a 18-16 lead.
Duke used an eight-point burst, in less than a minute, to open up a 22-16 advantage as the clock ticked under seven minutes remaining in the first half. Back-to-back three-pointers from Kon Knueppel and Isaiah Evans pushed the margin to double-digits, 28-18, and forced a Virginia Tech timeout with 5:13 on the clock.
An extended 17-2 scoring run by Duke, capped off by a Gillis three-pointer, grew the lead to as large as 13, 31-18. Knueppel connected on a fadeaway jumper as the first half clock expired, sending the Blue Devils into the break with a 10-point lead, 37-27.
James scored Duke’s first two points of the second half and Flagg quickly scored two of his own to make it a 41-27 lead for Duke with 17:13 on the clock. Consecutive dunks from James and Proctor expanded the lead to 15, 45-30, at the under-16 timeout. The Hokies made four straight shots to pull within nine, 49-40, with 13 minutes to play.
Proctor answered with his first three-pointer of the game, the junior’s ninth point of the afternoon, and Evans knocked down a shot from beyond the arc on Duke’s next trip down the floor to give Duke its 15-point lead back, 55-40. Duke’s next possession ended with Flagg’s 20th point of the game and forced a Virginia Tech timeout with 11:09 on the clock.
The Blue Devils’ defense held Virginia Tech without a made shot for over three minutes, as Duke moved ahead by 18, 63-45, with less than eight minutes remaining. Four straight makes by the Blue Devils’ offense increased the margin to 26, 73-47, with five minutes remaining.
James secured the second double-double of his career, and first as a Blue Devil, with a layup in transition to give Duke a 75-50 lead. Evans drilled two more three-pointers, giving the freshman four for the game, in the final minutes as Duke closed out the 88-65 victory.

NOTES

Duke is now 60-12 in ACC home openers, including 18 consecutive victories.
The Blue Devils’ 23-point victory on Tuesday represents Duke’s largest margin of victory in a conference home opener since defeating Boston College 88-49 on Dec. 31, 2019.
With the win, Duke now leads the series against Virginia Tech, 54-13, including a 24-1 (.960) record at home.
The fourth-ranked Blue Devils are now 300-92 (.765) in conference games when ranked as a top-five team in the country.
Duke is now 17-8 when playing on Dec. 21 and has won 14 of its last 15 games on that date, including four straight victories.
The Blue Devils finished the month of December with an unblemished record of 6-0 – the first undefeated December of head coach Jon Scheyer‘s tenure.
Tuesday marked the third time this season that six Blue Devils have scored in double figures.
With eight dunks on Tuesday, Duke is out-dunking its opponents, 58-16.
The Blue Devils won the rebounding battle, 35-22 and have out-rebounded 10 of their first 13 opponents this season.
Duke opened the game with a 15-2 advantage in second-chance points through the first 20 minutes and finished the game with a 17-3 margin in the category.
The Blue Devils held Virginia Tech to just two fast-break points. Duke opponents have logged single-digit fast-break points in all but two games this season.
Duke collected 38 points in the paint compared to 22 by the Hokies. The Blue Devils have out-scored the opposition in the paint in 11 of their 13 games and have posted a double-digit margin in that category seven times this season.
Duke finished 15-of-15 (1.000) from the free throw line, going perfect from the charity stripe for the first time since the Blue Devils shot 4-of-4 at Syracuse on Feb. 18, 2023. The last time Duke shot 100% on 10 or more attempts from the foul line was on Dec. 6, 2019, at Virginia Tech (10-of-10).
The Blue Devils shot 100% (15-of-15) from the foul line on 10 or more free throw attempts for just the fifth time in Duke history.
Duke has now connected on at least one 3-pointer in 1,238 straight games, the second-longest streak nationally.
Tuesday night marked the 531st consecutive game at Cameron Indoor Stadium that was sold out. The last time Duke did not have a sellout at home was on Nov. 6, 1990, against Boston College.
The streak is the longest current (by time) in either men’s college basketball or the NBA.
Cooper Flagg scored 14 first-half points, en route to a game-high 24 total points. The freshman added game highs of six assists and four steals, along with three rebounds.
With the 24 points, Flagg secured his sixth 20-point game of his career and eclipsed 200 career points. Coupled with his 106 rebounds, Flagg is just the sixth player in Duke history to score at least 200 points and grab at least 100 rebounds within Duke’s first 13 games of the respective season.
Flagg joins Jabari Parker (278 points/104 rebounds in 2013-14), Marvin Bagley III (274/142 in 2017-18), Zion Williamson (263/123 in 2018-19), Jahill Okafor (253/113 in 2014-15) and Vernon Carey Jr. (233/117 in 2019-20).
Sion James grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds to lead the team’s efforts on the glass. Tuesday marked James’ first game as a Blue Devil with double-digit caroms and just the second in his career.
James also scored 10 points, tallying the second double-double of his career. The graduate’s other double-double came with a 28-point and 10-rebound performance against North Texas in the 2024 AAC Tournament.
Tyrese Proctor scored 13 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field with three dunks, while distributing five assists.
After missing his first three 3-point shots, Isaiah Evans caught fire from long distance, connecting on all four of his remaining triples to finish with 12 points and season-highs of four rebounds and two assists off the bench.

QUOTES

“You’re always concerned about rust and for [Virginia Tech] too probably. Both teams have been off for 10 days. I thought we did some really good things. I thought it was a great step forward. When you know you’re going to play Virginia Tech, they’re going to make you really guard. You’re going to face great physicality on defense, and I thought we just did a great job of consistently trying to wear them down, even though they’re deep. I thought we had some good sequences of going defense to offense that helped us. We have a lot to improve on, but it’s great to take this first step forward, coming back from break.” – Duke head coach Jon Scheyer
“I feel like we looked okay today. We looked pretty good in flashes. We weren’t as sharp defensively as we wanted to be. We have really high standards at that end of the floor, but we showed that we can score the ball in a lot of ways, we can get stops in a lot of ways, and we can win games in a lot of ways.” – Duke graduate guard Sion James
“(Unselfishness) is something that we’ve stressed and made a big part of our team – just playing the right way. When you have so much talent like we do, it’s a disservice to your team and everybody on it if you don’t play the right way. I feel like we’re in a pretty good spot, but we’re just excited about how much potential we think we have to just keep getting better every single game, keep pushing and pushing.” – Duke freshman guard/forward Cooper Flagg

UP NEXT

No. 4 Duke returns to action for its next game, an ACC clash at SMU on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. The Blue Devils and Mustangs, meeting for just the fifth time and for the first time as conference foes, are scheduled for a 2:15 p.m., ET tipoff, with the game broadcast live on The CW.

To stay up to date with Blue Devils men’s basketball, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching “DukeMBB”.

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