CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- — Isaiah Evans scored 20 points, Cameron Boozer made two free throws with 3.9 seconds to seal the game and No. 1 Duke defeated No. 10 Virginia 74-70 on Saturday night for its second straight Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship under coach Jon Scheyer and its third title in the past four years.
CHARLOTTE — Duke basketball’s championship-level defense earned the top-ranked Blue Devils an ACC Tournament championship.
Duke buckled down with a dominant stretch of defense in the second half of a 73-62 win against Louisville on Saturday at Spectrum Center. The Blue Devils (31-3) held the high-scoring Cardinals (27-7) below 70 points for the second time this season to win their 23rd ACC Tournament title.
With the win, Duke’s Jon Scheyer is the first ACC coach to win the ACC Tournament in two of his first three seasons. In 2023, Scheyer became the first person to win an ACC title as a player and coach. He won two titles (2009-10) under former coach Mike Krzyzewski. The Blue Devils have won six ACC Tournament championships in Charlotte.
Here are some observations from Duke's win against Louisville in the ACC Tournament.
Kon Knueppel had an ACC Tournament MVP performance
Duke freshman Kon Knueppel had 16 points, eight rebounds and three assists in the championship game. Through two games in the ACC Tournament, Knueppel averaged 22.5 points on 47.7% shooting, including a 46.6% clip from 3-point range to lead the way after Cooper Flagg missed two games with an ankle injury.
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Tyrese Proctor 3-point shooting vs Louisville at ACC Tournament
Tyrese Proctor has been one of the ACC’s best 3-point shooters throughout the season, but was struggling at Spectrum Center ahead of Saturday’s finale. Proctor was 6 of 29 (20.6%) from long distance across the previous seven games and missed his first 12 shots from beyond the arc before heating up against Louisville. He made a trio of treys in the first half against the Cards and finished with a career-high six 3-pointers.
Louisville’s Terrence Edwards Jr. gave the Cardinals a chance
Louisville’s Terrence Edwards, who had 21 points in the regular-season loss to the Blue Devils, dropped 15 points and played every minute of the first half in the ACC title game. Edwards scored 10 points in the final five minutes, dropping five points during a 7-0 run that helped the Cards take a 38-33 halftime lead. Louisville shot 55% in the first half. Edwards, who had 21 points in the regular season against Duke, had 22 points in the ACC title game with 14:28 left. He scored five points the rest of the way, finishing with 27.
WASHINGTON — It must be March.
North Carolina State capped a miraculous conference tournament run with an 84-76 win over North Carolina on Saturday night, stealing a spot in the NCAA Tournament on the eve of Selection Sunday.
The Wolfpack, which lost seven of its last nine regular-season games, arrived in Washington as the No. 10 seed in the ACC tournament, needing to win five games in five days to prolong its season. And with an upset of Duke, an overtime victory over Virginia and its smothering of the Tar Heels on Saturday night, it managed to do just that.
NC State last won the ACC tournament in 1987 under legendary coach Jim Valvano.
"Everybody expected this to be Carolina and Duke," Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts said Friday. "Well, it's Carolina and NC State. We play pretty good basketball at NC State, too."
The Wolfpack were led by fifth-year guard DJ Horne, who racked up 29 points on 9-of-15 shooting while navigating foul trouble for much of the second half. He fouled out with a little more than a minute remaining.
DJ Burns Jr., who is listed at 275 pounds, also caused frequent issues for the Tar Heels with his bruising play in the post, finishing with 20 points, seven assists and four rebounds.
With the win, NC State injected a bit of chaos into the NCAA Tournament field less than 24 hours before the bracket is revealed. The Wolfpack is expected to join North Carolina, Duke and Clemson as the ACC teams in the field; Its win could amount to disaster for Virginia, which was among the key teams on the bubble.
GREENSBORO – Duke basketball found itself in a familiar place Saturday at the Greensboro Coliseum, cutting down nets in celebration of a 22nd ACC Tournament championship.
No program in league history has won more tournament titles than the Blue Devils, who secured a wire-to-wire 59-49 victory against Virginia on Saturday for their first ACC championship since 2019.
After a controversial loss at Virginia in February, the 21st-ranked Blue Devils (26-8) had ample motivation and never trailed against the 14th-ranked Cavaliers (25-7). It’s the ninth time Duke has raised a trophy in Greensboro.
First-year head coach Jon Scheyer is the third rookie coach to win the ACC Tournament, joining Duke’s Vic Bubas (1960) and UNC’s Bill Guthridge (1998). He’s the first person to win tournament MVP (2009) and coach a squad to a title.
Kyle Filipowski, the ACC Rookie of the Year, had 20 points and 10 rebounds to pace the Blue Devils. Junior captain Jeremy Roach supplied 23 points.
Kyle Filipowski was the best player on the floor in each of Duke’s three games at the ACC Tournament. On Saturday night, the 7-footer had as many points (7) as Virginia in the first 11 minutes.
After a scoreless performance that included five turnovers in Duke’s OT loss at Virginia, Filipowski had 11 points and five rebounds in the first half. The freshman turned things up in Duke’s first two games in Greensboro.
He hit 16 of his first 19 shots in the ACC Tournament, scoring 22 points against Pitt before adding 17 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high five assists against Miami. His 15 double-double performances leads all Division I freshmen
Duke’s interior defense
In its rout of Clemson, Virginia scored 40 points in the paint. Things didn’t come as easily for the Cavaliers against Duke, which limited the Cavaliers to six points in the paint in the first half.
The Blue Devils made a point to keep Virginia from being comfortable on the interior, forcing the Hoos’ guards away from the rim and daring them to shoot over 7-foot-1 center Dereck Lively, who had two blocks in the first half after not recording a block in the loss at Virginia.
By the end of the first half, the Cavaliers were shooting 27% (6 of 22) and Duke had a 24-17 lead.
No. 9 Clemson isn't going to compete for a national title this season, but it returned to conference supremacy and clinched a spot in the Orange Bowl with a 39-10 shellacking of No. 23 North Carolina in the ACC Championship Game. The win marks the Tigers' seventh ACC crown of the past eight seasons and brings a bit of redemption for Dabo Swinney's program after it failed to make the league title game last season for the first time since 2014.
North Carolina jumped out to an early 7-0 lead but faded fast once Clemson turned to freshman quarterback Cade Klubnik on its third possession. With junior starter DJ Uiagalelei proving ineffective, Klubnik entered and quickly flipped the momentum in the Tigers' favor by directing a 71-yard touchdown drive. The former five-star prospect and heir-apparent to Uiagalelei completed 20 of 24 passes for 279 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions, while also running for 30 yards and a score. Klubnik remained on the field until third-string quarterback Hunter Johnson entered with the game out of hand in the fourth quarter.
Klubnik's counterpart, North Carolina's Drake Maye, guided the Tar Heels into the red zone five times, but those trips produced just 10 points. A fumble and a blocked field goal attempt hampered the Tar Heels in the first half, and a costly interception gutted their chances during the the third quarter.
With the Tar Heels trailing just 24-10, Maye threw an ill-advised third-down pass that Clemson's Nate Wiggins intercepted and returned 98 yards for a touchdown with 5:05 left in the third quarter. The play zapped UNC's hopes of a rally and ushered in the Tar Heels' third consecutive loss. At 9-4, North Carolina can still reach double-digit victories for just the second time since 1997 if it wins a bowl game.
Clemson has already reached double-digit wins for a 12th straight season under Swinney and can finish 12-2 if it wins the Orange Bowl. Tennessee is its projected opponent for the game, which is set for Dec. 30 in Miami. With such an emphatic win in the ACC Championship Game, Clemson would have been in great shape to make the College Football Playoff if only it hadn't lost to South Carolina last week. Without the loss to the Gamecocks, which marked Clemson's first home loss since 2016, the Tigers would have benefitted tremendously from this weekend's losses by No. 3 TCU and No. 4 USC.
But a league title and New Year's Six bowl appearance are nothing to scoff at, especially after the program lost long-time coordinators Tony Elliot (Virginia) and Brent Venables (Oklahoma) to head coaching gigs after the 2021 season.
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Mission accomplished. No. 7 Virginia Tech defeated No. 1 Duke 82-67 to claim the 2022 ACC Tournament Championship, the first in program history. In what’s been a magical week for the Hokies, it ended on a high note at the Barclays Center on Saturday night. With the win, Virginia Tech earns an automatic bid into next week’s NCAA Tournament.
The tempo was fierce from the start for the Hokies and Blue Devils--Tech shooting 5-of-7 from the field while Duke was just as good, shooting 6-of-8, through the first media timeout.
The difference maker? Hunter Cattoor. He finished with a career-high 31 points (7-of-9 from three point range) the second most for any VT player in an ACC Tournament game.
This proved to be Mike Young’s sixth career conference title win, first with Virginia Tech.
Duke had three players finish in double-figures but were a dismal 18 percent shooting from three point range.
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- — Jose Alvarado couldn't contain his emotions as the horn sounded, collapsing in disbelief as his Georgia Tech teammates mobbed each other near midcourt.
He quickly ran to the celebration that included coach Josh Pastner — still sporting that can't-miss-it clear face shield.
"Coach, you're a champion, man!" Alvarado yelled as he joined him for a postgame TV interview amid fallen-from-the-rafters balloons and confetti.
The Yellow Jackets have their first Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament title in nearly three decades after beating No. 15 Florida State 80-75 in Saturday night's championship game. Just as importantly, they've secured an automatic NCAA Tournament berth to end an 11-year drought.
"A lot of emotions: joy, happiness, everything," said Michael Devoe, the tournament MVP. "I mean, this goes down in history for us."
Devoe scored 20 points for the fourth-seeded Yellow Jackets (17-8), who shot 52% after halftime and repeatedly capitalized on mistakes by the Seminoles to win their first ACC Tournament crown since 1993 and fourth overall.
ACC player of the year Moses Wright and Jordan Usher each had 11 of their 15 points after halftime for Georgia Tech, which got off to an 0-2 start this season with home losses to Georgia State and Mercer. The Yellow Jackets stood 9-8 after a loss at Clemson on a last-second shot Feb. 12 to find themselves facing bubble uncertainty.
But they haven't lost since. And there's no doubt about the NCAA tourney now after a remarkable climb, not after a strong finish against the second-seeded Seminoles (16-6).
"Our guys have just scrapped, fought, kicked, clawed — whatever they had to do to find a way to get wins this year," Pastner said. "And I'm just so darn proud of these young men."
Scottie Barnes had 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting for Florida State, which shot 56% but committed 25 turnovers that led to 31 points for the Yellow Jackets.
They came in all kinds of ways, from the Seminoles bobbling catches and having passes deflected to just throwing balls straight out of bounds. The 25 turnovers fell one shy of tying a tournament title-game record since the league began tracking the number in 1961, while Georgia Tech's 15 steals — five by Alvarado — was a title-game record since the league began charting it in 1976.
"We did turn the ball over a couple of times ourselves, what we call self-inflicted turnovers," FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. "But for the most part, I think that they forced us into turnovers. ... I want to give them credit because they did an unbelievable job of just stripping us from the ball, and their defense created a mindset with us where we were unsure as to what we were supposed to do."
The Yellow Jackets avoided such trouble with just seven turnovers. But they were particularly steady down the stretch, making six of eight shots over the final eight minutes as well as 11 of 12 free throws in the final 90 seconds.
That included Alvarado knocking down a pair with nine seconds left after shaking off a hard fall, which had come right after Barnes' 3 pulled the Seminoles to 76-73.
The only thing that didn't go according to plan was the Yellow Jackets' celebration. Alvarado stripped RayQuan Evans and fed Devoe for a layup with 0.6 seconds left, but the Georgia Tech players began spilling onto the court early to celebrate. That led to a technical foul and two free throws for FSU, though the outcome was decided and the Georgia Tech party had begun.
Pastner kept that face shield in place, too, even as he stood atop a ladder — socially distanced from his team below — and cut down the final strands of net.
It was an unusual final pairing in a tournament altered by the coronavirus pandemic. No. 16 Virginia and Duke withdrew after positive COVID-19 tests within their programs. The title matchup marked the second finale without a North Carolina-based team, the other being Georgia Tech's win against Virginia in 1990.
Now the Yellow Jackets finally have another.
BIG PICTURE
Georgia Tech: The Yellow Jackets had won seven straight, including Thursday against Miami in the quarterfinals. Then their semifinal matchup with the Cavaliers was canceled to give them an unexpected off day before the final. They didn't shoot well from outside (5 for 23 on 3-pointers) but still won in their first title-game appearance since 2010.
Florida State: The Seminoles had a delayed tournament debut when their scheduled quarterfinal against the Blue Devils was called off, but they pushed past North Carolina in Friday's semifinals by locking down defensively in the final four minutes to close it out. They found themselves in another tough finish despite all the turnovers, though this time they couldn't keep the Yellow Jackets from getting to the line or scoring timely baskets.
UP NEXT
Both the Seminoles and Yellow Jackets will find out their NCAA Tournament seeding Sunday.
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