{"id":522665,"date":"2026-03-14T06:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T06:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/522665\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T06:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T06:37:07","slug":"duke-cruises-past-clemson-will-play-virginia-for-acc-tournament-title-wral-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/522665\/","title":{"rendered":"Duke cruises past Clemson, will play Virginia for ACC Tournament title :: WRAL.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTE \u2014 Top-seeded and top-ranked Duke, even without two starters, is headed back to the ACC Tournament title game.<\/p>\n

The Blue Devils rushed past No. 5 seed Clemson 73-61 on Friday night in Charlotte. Duke will play second-seeded Virginia in Saturday night\u2019s title game. The Cavaliers routed third-seeded Miami in the first semifinal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came here to win,\u201d Duke star Cameron Boozer said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re going for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duke (31-2) has won a record 23 ACC championships, including last year in Charlotte. Clemson, a charter member of the league, has never won the ACC title.<\/p>\n

Boozer, the ACC Player of the Year, delivered another standout performance, leading Duke with 24 points, 14 rebounds and five assists. It was his 19th double-double of the season. Boozer led the ACC in scoring and rebounding.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s as consistent as anybody,\u201d Duke guard Devin Harris said. \u201cJust the way he impacts the game in every way, his passing, rebounding, defending. He\u2019s a dominant force. It\u2019s easy to play basketball when one guy is getting double- and triple-teamed. He makes it easier on everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Devils got strong performances from Cayden Boozer and Nikolas Khamenia \u2014 two regular reserves \u2014 in the absence of injured starters<\/a> Caleb Foster (right foot fracture) and Patrick Ngongba (right foot soreness). Cayden Boozer had a career-high 16 points, and Khamenia scored 14.<\/p>\n

ACC TOURNAMENT: Full schedule, results<\/a><\/p>\n

In Thursday\u2019s quarterfinals, Florida State chose to let Cayden Boozer have outside shots often leaving him wide open. He shot 3-of-10 from the floor and 0-for-5 from 3-point range, though Boozer did have a key putback late in the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Against Clemson, he didn\u2019t settle for 3s and instead drove the lane. Boozer finished 6-of-12 from the field and 1-of-2 from 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m really proud of Cayden, though, because Cayden yesterday was a different kind of game, and to bounce back with the confidence, the control over the game, I just thought he made big plays,\u201d Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. \u201cHe’s grown so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

A night after scoring a career-high 32 points, Isaiah Evans made just 1-of-9 field goal attempts and missed all seven of his 3-point tries as Clemson keyed on him defensively. But Evans set a career high with 10 rebounds, a key without Ngongba and with Maliq Brown in foul trouble.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was incredibly patient, disciplined, and then he threw his energy into what we call the 98 percent, all the areas that are without the ball,\u201d Scheyer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Duke ended the first half on a 26-6 run to take control of the game. Clemson made just one of its final 15 field-goal attempts in the first half. The Blue Devils extended the lead to as many as 20 in the second half.<\/p>\n

Duke, which has won 10 straight games, likely needs to win the ACC title to secure the No. 1 overall seed in next week\u2019s NCAA Tournament because the Blue Devils\u2019 top competitors for the spot have also been winning in their conference tournaments.<\/p>\n

Duke beat Virginia 77-51 in late February.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a blessing to be playing for a championship,\u201d Scheyer said. \u201cSo fatigue is not going to be a factor in this. It’s a blessing. We’re grateful to be in this position where it’s hard to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clemson has played for the ACC title once in 2008. Coach Brad Brownell has brought the Tigers to the semifinals four times since 2019 without a win, including three of the last four tournaments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to win an ACC Tournament, and we haven’t been able to do that,\u201d he said. \u201cCertainly it’s a point of frustration. But it’s a heck of a challenge, too. There’s 18 teams trying to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Who is Duke’s mystery bench player? His dad won two national titles with the Blue Devils<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE \u2014 Top-seeded and top-ranked Duke, even without two starters, is headed back to the ACC Tournament title…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[83850,81857,235655,17017,102299,50263,22268,99],"class_list":["post-522665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-acc-basketball","tag-acc-tournament","tag-clemson-university-sports","tag-duke-basketball","tag-duke-sports","tag-isaiah-evans","tag-jon-scheyer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}