The Clemson Tigers were ready, willing, and able to defeat Duke on Saturday. Even Duke’s star player, Cooper Flagg, couldn’t keep their 16-game winning streak alive.
With Dick Vitale back in the building announcing after a two-year hiatus, Clemson gave him and Tigers fans something to get excited about.
Clemson was down early, 6-0 just a minute into the game, setting the tone for the first half. The Blue Devils played their style of basketball and held Clemson at bay. The Tigers had to be happy with their performance so far, despite being down 41-35 at the half. It wasn’t because they weren’t hitting their shots–as they had an absurd 58.8% FG percentage for the game. They just needed to keep the game close and the crowd would rally around them. Clemson didn’t let Duke stretch their lead to double digits in the second half.
To keep the Tigers in the game, they turned to senior big man Viktor Lakhin. The center put the team on his back in the second half, going on a 9-0 run all by himself to get Clemson within two points. That was all the crowd and his teammates needed to say, “ok let’s go.” From there the Tigers overpowered Duke with Lakhin leading the charge. The Blue Devils wouldn’t go away quietly, though, as they fought back several times to tie it.
Number one NBA prospect Cooper Flagg was held in check for the most part, scoring 18 points. He showed though why he is a Player of the Year candidate. With about one minute remaining in the game, and Duke down 68-70, Flagg pulled up from three and hit it, putting Duke in front 71-70. That silenced the crowd but not Dick Vitale, who let out a patented “Are you serious?!” Cooper Flagg indeed was serious as he willed Duke back into the game. Well, that’s when Duke decided to stop scoring as they lost 77-71, and the court storm ensued.
After beating Duke, Clemson will surely be ranked, with their record now standing at 19-5 overall and 11-2 in the conference. They will be a team to watch in March, as they have the potential to make a deep run. Viktor Lakhin is the glue that holds this team together.
His run of nine straight points to start the second half proves he can take over a game. Clemson also showed that they have the shooting to stay competitive. They do protect the ball well, averaging 10.4 turnovers per game, ranking them 41st in the nation in that category. The normally sharp free throw shooting team, which averages 78% a game, struggled against Duke, shooting just 59.1% from the line.
The issue for Clemson is who they lost to. They only have five losses on the year, but two of them are what you would consider “bad losses”—one being versus Georgia Tech last week in three overtimes. The other was against South Carolina the week before Christmas, also in overtime.
The reason these losses are so crucial is that the records for these teams are 11-13 for Georgia Tech and 10-12 for South Carolina. Those are games that Clemson may not recover from, even with this big win over Duke and a big win earlier this year against Kentucky. The committee will have a tough decision to make. Clemson will likely be a bubble team, and there will be a lot of conversations around them in the coming weeks.
Clemson is a team to watch down the stretch, with no ranked games remaining on their schedule. If they can get a winning streak going and stay healthy, look out—the Tigers can make some serious noise in March.
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