#1 Duke Withstands North Carolina Rally 74-71 without Cooper Flagg to Advance to ACC Finals

The #1 Duke Blue Devils withstood a furious North Carolina 2nd Half rally to beat the Tar Heels 74-71 to advance to the ACC Finals on Saturday night. Duke was without Cooper Flagg (left ankle) and Maliq Brown (left shoulder).

Duke led 30-24 and then went on a 15-0 run to end the 1st Half, leading 45-24.

UNC outscored Duke 47-29 in the 2nd Half and had a chance to take the lead, trailing by 1 but missed a free throw and then had a free throw waived off because of a lane violation.

For Duke the were led by Kon Knueppel who finished with 17 points. Khaman Maluach had 13 points. Sion James and Patrick Ngongba each had 12 points and Tyrese Proctor had 11 points.

Knueppel only sat out 1:58 of the game.

Post game Duke Coach Jon Scheyer ruled out Maliq Brown for the ACC Final against Louisville because of a re-dislocated shoulder. He also ruled out Cooper Flagg for the final.

As far as Cooper goes, he doing better. Sprained ankle, all the imaging came back negative. He sprained it pretty good though. It's a good sprain. I'm not breaking any news. He's not going to play tomorrow. He can't play. But our goal is to have him ready for the Tournament. But we need to see how this weekend goes with the swelling and what he can do.

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