Another big night for Cooper Flagg: Three takeaways from Duke's 12th consecutive win

Steve Wiseman, The News & Observer on Jan 18, 2025

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CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — As Cooper Flagg played the closest thing to a home game he’ll get as a college player, Boston College bloodied but couldn’t stop the superstar freshman.

A Maine native, cheered on by the hundreds of fans from his home state in his return to New England, scored 28 points to lead No. 3 Duke to a 88-63 ACC basketball win over Boston College at Conte Forum.

The 6-9 Flagg played part of the second half with gauze packed in his right nostril after Boston College’s Roger McFarlane hit him in the nose with his right forearm when they got tangled under the basket early in the second half.

McFarlane was called for a contact technical foul, but the incident did little to slow Flagg, who topped the 20-point mark for the ninth time this season by making 9 of 14 shots against Boston College.

Tyrese Proctor added 20 points for the Blue Devils (16-2, 8-0 ACC), who won their 12th consecutive game. That’s the nation’s longest active winning streak and Duke’s first 12-game winning streak since its 2014-15 NCAA championship season.

Isaiah Evans scored 16 points for Duke as he made four 3-pointers.

Boston College (9-9, 1-6), after shooting 58.3% in the first half, cooled off dramatically after halftime, hitting just 32% of its shots to finish at 44.9% for the game.

Here are three takeaways from Duke’s latest win:

Proctor bounces back

After scoring just three points over Duke’s past two games, including his first scoreless outing of the season last Tuesday against Miami, Proctor rediscovered his scoring touch. The 6-5 junior guard made 7 of 12 shots, including 3 of 7 3-pointers, to reach his season high in points.

In those two games where his scoring was off, Proctor made just 1 of 9 shots in Duke’s wins over Notre Dame and Miami. Those performances came after Proctor had reached double figures in four consecutive games, averaging 12.5 points during that stretch.

Saturday night at Boston College, he quickly showed his shooting touch had returned. He scored 10 first-half points, hitting 2 of 4 3-pointers in the game’s first 20 minutes.

Duke’s offense keeps rolling

The Blue Devils shot 52.6%, the seventh consecutive game they have made 50% of their shots or better. That included making 57% of their shots in the second-half when they turned their 40-34 lead into a more comfortable final margin.

As celebrated as Duke’s defense has been this season as one of the nation’s best, the Blue Devils’ offense entered Saturday night No. 4 in the country in offensive efficiency (124.5 points per 100 possessions). That number will improve since the Blue Devils scored 1.35 points per possession against Boston College.

Flagg and Proctor became the first Duke teammates to each score 20 points or more in the same game this season.

Duke defense leaky early

By getting the ball inside far more than Duke’s coaches preferred, Boston College made eight of its first 13 shots overall and shot 58.3% in the first half. That’s the best shooting any team has managed in a half against the Blue Devils this season.

The Eagles recorded 20 points in the paint while leading by as many as seven points in the first half before Duke took a 40-34 lead to intermission.

Two things factored into Duke having such a tough time stopping the Eagles early. One, of course, is 6-9 forward Maliq Brown’s absence. Brown, Duke’s sixth man who led the ACC in steals at Syracuse last season, is counted on to disrupt opposing offenses when he enters the game.

Normally, Brown spells Khaman Maluach to allow the 7-2 freshman a break. Maluach got a break, just not the way Duke preferred. He picked up his second foul with 7:18 to play in the first half and went to the bench.

Duke used 6-11 freshman center Pat Ngongba some but also had 6-6 Mason Gillis play the five position (center) on defense with Flagg also helping defend the post.

Duke has to use that defensive setup even more in the second half when Maluach picked up his fourth foul at 16:35 and Ngongba was called for his third foul with 15:04 to play. Duke even used some zone defensive sets.

It worked as Boston College’s shooting and scoring slowed dramatically.