Jan. 19—CHESTNUT HILL — It was a sluggish start for the Duke men’s basketball team, but Cooper Flagg and Tyrese Proctor kept the Blue Devils in front.
They kept up their play in the second half. This time, they had company.
Flagg scored 28 points, Proctor added 20, and No. 3 Duke sped by Boston College, 80-55, in Flagg’s first, and likely only, return trip to New England with the Blue Devils.
The game at BC’s Conte Forum was sold out, with many of them pulling for the Blue Devils, and the freshman standout and projected No. 1 pick in the NBA draft gave them something to cheer about.
“I think I expected it. I heard from a lot of people leading up (to it),” Flagg said. “I wouldn’t say I felt any type of pressure. For me, it was more of just a blessing.”
Both coaches acknowledged the raucous crowd, worked to a frenzy to support — or, for the Eagles faithful, pull against — the kid from Maine.
“That atmosphere was unbelievable,” BC coach Earl Grant said. “If you weren’t ready to play, you need to choose a different sport.”
Scheyer agreed.
“What a special turnout,” he said. “We’ve been here a lot. The representation of Duke fans has always been great, this was I think the best I’ve ever seen it. And I think a lot of it has to do with Maine.”
The win took some work, which pleased Duke coach Jon Scheyer.
“I’m proud of our team tonight,” he said. “I thought our second half was really good. Give Boston College a ton of credit, they came out very physical, very ready to play. And they knocked us back a little bit. I thought it was great for us to be in that environment, and that experience.”
Chad Venning scored 19 points to lead the Eagles (9-9, 1-6 ACC), while Donald Hand Jr. had 12.
“(It was) definitely little stuff, like breakdowns, defensive slip-ups here and there. Fatigue,” Venning said. “They’re a really good team.”
Boston College got its upset bid started in auspicious fashion, jumping out to an 18-11 lead while Eagles fans at the sold-out Conte Forum showered Flagg with “Over-rated” chants. Flagg was shaky to start, making only one of his first five tries from the field as Duke struggled initially to get going.
Though the shots didn’t fall, Flagg made up for it by attacking the basket, and made all seven first-half free throws en route to 15 points. Proctor added 10 points, helping Duke to a 40-34 lead at the break.
“We were struggling there in that first half,” Scheyer said. “They were scoring pretty easy, we weren’t.”
In the second half, the Blue Devils found their rhythm. After a Venning and-1 narrowed the gap to 49-41 with 16:35 to go, Duke went on a 16-2 run, getting points from five different players. Flagg had a dunk and Proctor hit a jumper during the surge, and Isaiah Evans (16 points, 11 in the second half) hit a 3-pointer that made it 58-43 with 12:42 to go.
“It was a really physical game. We went into halftime thinking about that,” Flagg said. “(We talked about) just coming out and being strong with the ball and just playing more physically.”
Scheyer said the team turned that into better interior defense after the break.
“They ended up with 28 points in the paint, I bet they had almost all of them in the beginning of the second half, those first few minutes, and then the first half,” he said. “I think it’s a combination of a lot of things. Our post defense has to be better. We have to straight up guard the ball better. But most importantly, we weren’t moving five guys on a string like we have been.”
BC coach Grant said the Eagles lost their way in the second half.
“We kind of took command of the game, and then I thought Isaiah Evans came in and really opened the game up. … He changed the game,” he said. “We had a good gameplan, we were executing that plan at a high level, and we got away from it a little bit. … We did a good job on Flagg early, but he’s hard to contain.”
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