By Mark Bergin, WRAL senior multiplatform producer

Charlotte, N.C. — Duke will be without star freshman Cooper Flagg again Saturday night.

After Duke’s 74-71 win over North Carolina in Friday night’s ACC seminfinal game, Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer ruled Flagg out for the ACC Championship game with a left sprained ankle.

“All the imaging came back negative,” Scheyer said of Flagg’s diagnosis. “He sprained it pretty good though. Like, it’s a good sprain.

“Look, I’m not breaking any news, he’s not going to play [Saturday]. Like, he can’t play.”

Scheyer said the goal is for Flagg to play in the NCAA Tournament. The first round of the NCAA Tournament tips off on March 20.

“We need to see how this weekend goes with the swelling and what he can do,” Scheyer said of Flagg’s injury.

Duke (30-3) will play Louisville (27-6) on Saturday night in the ACC Championship game. Louisville defeated Clemson (26-6) on Friday night by a final score of 76-73.

Both Flagg and junior forward Maliq Brown did not play in Saturday’s semifinal against UNC.

Flagg, the ACC Player of the Year and expected No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, injured his left ankle with 2 minutes, 46 seconds remaining in the first half of Thursday’s game against Georgia Tech. He did not return to the game, but did come back to the Blue Devils’ bench in the second half.

Brown rediscolated his left shoulder during Thursday’s game against Georgia Tech, Scheyer said.

“There’s no expecation of him playing anytime soon,” Scheyer said of Brown.

Scheyer said Duke would reevaluate Brown when the team gets back to campus.

99.9 The Fan host Tim Donnelly asked Scheyer what facet of the game Duke missed Brown the most on Friday night.

“Our versatility on defense,” Scheyer said. “We’ve switched these guys a lot the first two times we played them and we didn’t do that at all [Friday night].

“Maybe we should have in the second half in retrospect. But Maliq’s defensive versality and then, for us, he’s been a guy on offense we can just play catch with, meaning we can just [get him the ball] and get great cutting action off the ball.”

The Blue Devils led 52-28 early in the second half, which was their largest lead of the night. Duke led 45-24 at halftime, but got outscored in the second half 47-29.

Duke held off UNC’s comeback attempt. The Tar Heels cut the lead to 72-71 with seconds remaining in the second half. However, a lane violation with four seconds left against UNC forward Jae’Lyn Withers on a Ven-Allen Lubin free throw attempt helped the Blue Devils stave off the Tar Heels.

“I just thought our team had great fight, incredible fight stepping up with ‘Coop’ [Cooper Flagg] and Maliq [Brown] being out,” Scheyer said.

After Friday’s game, UNC coach Hubert Davis spoke about playing Duke without Flagg and Brown.

“Duke, even without Maliq [Brown] and Cooper [Flagg], they still have tremendous length,” Davis said.

Source: wralsportsfan.com