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Duke loses star Cooper Flagg to injury. His status for the rest of the ACC Tournament is uncertain
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Duke got a major scare in its ACC Tournament opener on Thursday. And it was only partially because of the 14-point deficit it faced midway through the first half.
The top-ranked Blue Devils roared from behind to beat the eighth-seeded Yellow Jackets 78-70 at Spectrum Center and advance to a semifinal date with either North Carolina or Wake Forest. But their chances of continuing their dominance of the conference and winning the tournament championship were thrown into doubt by an injury to star Cooper Flagg.
The national Player of the Year favorite went down with an ankle injury after grabbing a rebound with 2:46 left in the first half.
Flagg’s left foot appeared to slip out from underneath him as he landed and he immediately crashed to the floor in pain. He hobbled to the bench, where he was attended to by Duke’s medical staff before being helped to the locker room by a pair of teammates.
The 6-9 wing was seen sitting in a wheelchair during halftime. But he returned to the bench under his own power, though clearly favoring his ankle, during the first media timeout of the second half.
He didn’t return.
His status for the remainder of the tournament and next week’s NCAA Tournament has not yet been determined.
Flagg was off to a slow start before his injury, going just 1-for-7 from the floor (0-for-3 3-pointers) with 4 rebounds and a turnover. He wasn’t the only Duke player that struggled early, though.
The Blue Devils fell behind 26-12 with 9 minutes remaining in the first half. Flagg’s injury seemed to light a spark under them, however. They outscored Tech 9-2 for the remainder of the half and opened the second half on a 16-2 run to regain control.
Teammate Kon Knueppel took up much of the slack by posting a Flagg-like stat line of 28 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 steals.
While Duke may have avoided disaster with Flagg, the news wasn’t all good on the injury front. Junior forward Maliq Brown also left the game with what appeared to be a re-aggravation of the shoulder injury that forced him to miss 9 games earlier this season.
Brown was also taken to the locker room and later left the arena on a stretcher.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
