By Bob Holliday, WRAL Sports contribuor

It’s the most talked about dunk of the year. Cooper Flagg had just stolen the ball from Pitt’s Jalond Lowe, and after dribbling down court at full speed, threw down an emphatic one handed dunk over a 7-foot defender named Guillermo Diaz-Graham. And he was fouled. Three point play.

On the very next possession, Flagg worked in the half court, using a nifty crossover dribble to get free. This time Flagg dunked with two hands. And that has to be the second most talked about dunk of the ACC season.

Although Flagg’s slams energize the Duke team and the Duke crowd — the Blue Devils after all outscored Pitt 39-21 in the 17 minutes after Flagg’s dunks — the throwdowns are but a very small part of his total basketball arsenal.

That was all on full display Saturday against Notre Dame. Flagg scored an ACC freshman record 42 points; also the highest point total by any Duke player since Danny Ferry poured in 58 at Miami more than 35 years ago.

Amazingly, Flagg scored his 42Cooper Flagg scores ACC freshman record 42 points as No. 4 Duke beats Notre Dame 86-78 on a mere 14 shots. He made 11, including 4 of 6 from three. He hit 16-17 free throws. But Flagg of course is not just a scorer. He dished out 7 assists, grabbed 6 rebounds, and played well defensively, making another steal.

Duke needed every one of Flagg’s contributions because Notre Dame, unlike the Pitt Panthers whom Duke buried 76-47, came storming back. The Blue Devils built an 18 point lead at 79-61, but the Irish outscored the Blue Devils 15-1 over the next 5 ½ minutes to pull within 80-76.

Flagg made four free throws in the final 30 seconds to set the scoring record and secure Duke’s surprisingly narrow home victory.

The Blue Devils looked invincible early in the game, piling up 14 points before the Irish could score at all. In fact, if you count the 18-0 run at the end of the Pitt game, Duke outscored these two opponents by a combined 32-0 over 13 minutes of play! The flip side is that Notre Dame, over the final 35 minutes at Cameron, scored 78 points while Duke scored just 72.

Three-point shooting fueled the Notre Dame surge. The Irish hit 14 threes but just 13 two point shots. Coach Micah Shrewsberry’s team shot a blistering 58% from beyond the arc but only 39% inside the arc.

Much of this disparity is due to the presence of Khamen Maluach whose 7’2″ frame alters dozens of shots near the basket. The Irish kept the game close despite one of Maluach’s best games-19 points and 10 rebounds. He also hit some clutch free throws late.

Duke played without its best wing defender, 6’9″ Maliq Brown, who suffered a knee injury very early in the game.

Duke had won six straight games by 20 points or more. The last time the Blue Devils played a game as close as the Notre Dame game came on December 4 when they beat Auburn 84-78.

Duke has moved to #2 in the latest NET rankings. Ironically Auburn, which Duke beat, is #1. But the Tigers are otherwise undefeated-even in the tough SEC-while Duke suffered long ago losses to Kentucky and Kansas.

Still, analyst Carlos Boozer (Duke 2001) said on ACC Network’s “Nothing but Net” that he’s confident Duke can go 20-0 against the ACC.

Three straight for the Heels

Both North Carolina and NC State are hoping Notre Dame’s strong showing against Duke means they have a chance against the team from Durham. The Tar Heels and Wolfpack both posted victories against the Irish, albeit by one point.

Each of these teams, UNC #37 in the NET, and NC State #106 in the rankings, have work to do to make the NCAA Tournament, since quality wins in this ACC are somewhat scarce.

For example, UNC’s trip to Raleigh did not count as a Quad One for the Tar Heels and would not have counted as a Quad One win for the Wolfpack had NC State won.

And by the way, I definitely see this as a rivalry regardless of what anyone else says. During the 70’s Carolina-State was bigger than Carolina-Duke. While the Duke game began to claim top status during the Mike Krzyzewski era, there’s still plenty of competitive fire between the light blue and red.

We saw that during the first half at the Lenovo Center. It wasn’t well played, but it was fiercely fought.

NC State attacked the glass, rebounding 40% of its missed shots. The Pack blocked a whopping five shots in the first 20 minutes. State also forced seven turnovers as officials called very few fouls despite extremely physical play.

Carolina blocked three shots and forced five turnovers in the frenzied first half.

Alas, both teams shot poorly, combining for a whopping 50 misses before intermission. This was the rare up and down high tempo game that did not produce high scoring, both teams struggling to get to 20 in the first 20.

State took a 17-14 lead after two baskets by Kinston’s Dontrez Styles, who netted back to back jumpers against his former team. UNC went on a 10-0 run late in the first half and led 26-20 at the break.

The teams settled down in the second half and started putting the ball in the basket. State, which shot an abysmal 22% in the first half. hit 15-25 after intermission. UNC, which shot 38% early made nearly half its shots (14-29) in the second half. Also the Tar Heels rebounded better.

UNC led most of the way behind freshman Ian Jackson’s 21 points, building leads of eight and nine points. Carolina led 56-47 when Jackson buried a three ball on an assist from Elliot Cadeau.

But the Tar Heels failed to score on four of their next five possessions.

Cadeau committed back to back turnovers against State’s aggressive pressure and Coach Hubert Davis actually put Cadeau on the bench for a few minutes. NC State meanwhile, scored virtually every time down the floor, taking a 59-58 lead on a jumper by Marcus Hill. The Bowling Green transfer scored the Wolfpack’s first 10 points in the game and led scoring with 20.

UNC retook the lead on a kickout pass from Jalen Washington to Jackson, who was open beyond the arc. But then Hill scored one more time to knot the score at 61.

R.J. Davis, who scored 26 points in UNC’s impressive win over SMU, was limited to 11 by the Wolfpack. He missed a jumper with just over a minute to go, giving State a chance to shoot for the lead.

But Hill, guarded closely by Seth Trimble, turned the ball over. Davis called time out and put Cadeau back into the game.

Cadeau took charge on the Tar Heels final possession. He penetrated toward the baseline drawing the defense. With his back to the basket he flipped a seeing eye pass to Washington for the dunk and a 63-61 lead.

State still had 20 seconds to work with. Jaden Taylor attacked the basket as the clock wound down. His shot was knocked out of the air by the 6’10 Washington in the biggest moment of his career.

Coach Kevin Keatts and Wolfpack fans wanted a goal tending call, thinking officials would go to the monitor to review the play; I would note that twice in the first half UNC was awarded baskets because of goal tending. But official replay can only be used if goal tending is called, which in Taylor’s case it wasn’t. The tv replay and still photos indicated the ball was still on its way up. Washington’s block sealed the Tar Heels’ hard fought victory.

Both UNC’s Trimble and NC State’s Ben Middlebrooks played a large role in this game even though they didn’t score much. Trimble returned from a three game injury absence against SMU, immediately bolstering a UNC defense that gave up way too many uncontested shots when he was out. Trimble had five rebounds and two steals against State, in addition to forcing the key turnover against Hill. Middlebrooks was a mad man on the boards against Carolina—14 rebounds and two blocked shots. Remember Middlebrooks missed the Virginia game with illness. Had he been healthy in Charlottesville, the Wolfpack would have another badly needed ACC win.

UNC is now 4-1, tied for fourth in the ACC behind Duke, Louisville, and Clemson. The Tar Heels have home games this week against Cal and Stanford.

NC State is 2-3 in ACC play, tied for ninth, and just 9-7 overall. The Wolfpack faces a critical road game at Virginia Tech, followed by a winnable home game with Cal, which just lost to Virginia Tech in Berkeley.

The Pack played better defensively this week against Notre Dame and UNC. Keeping that intensity is an imperative going forward.

Source: wralsportsfan.com