Cooper Flagg’s record-setting day was too much for a spirited Irish effort in a tough environment
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish went into Cameron Indoor Stadium for the most daunting game on their 2024-25 schedule, and until the last four minutes, it went mostly how you would expect. To the credit of Micah Shrewsberry and his squad, other recent Notre Dame teams have rolled over far more easily in this building against lesser Duke teams. However, the size and skill gap between Notre Dame and Duke was evident from start-to-finish, and even a scorching hot shooting day from deep wasn’t enough to catch Duke behind Cooper Flagg’s career day.
Duke opened the scoring with an easy alley-oop to Khaman Maluach, while the Blue Devils’ length proved to be very frustrating for the Irish offensive attack. Every single shot was difficult and over an outstretched arm, and Notre Dame could get nothing to fall. Duke would hit three triples in-between the Irish getting blanked, and Micah Shrewsberry had to call timeout when the deficit hit 11-0.
The timeout didn’t help. The Irish came out of it with a (crowd-induced?) turnover, and Cooper Flagg poured in another three for Duke. Notre Dame couldn’t get on the board until Marcus Burton drew a mercy foul call on a light touch on a fadeaway jumper and made both free throws. The Blue Devils would generously miss two open threes on the next possession, and Braeden Shrewsberry got loose for a three to give the Irish a quick 5-0 run.
Burton would soon hit a deep contested three, and Matt Allocco would hit a desperation end-of-shot-clock triple to give the Irish a bit of a lift. Unfortunately, Duke kept getting extremely easy shots, including another wide open corner three from Flagg. The Irish trailed 21-11 at the under-12 timeout, with Sir Mohammed headed to the line off of a nice aggressive drive.
Duke’s Kon Knueppel gave the Blue Devils a boost in the next stretch with a three pointer and a pair of free throws, partially offset by a banked-in three by Mohammed. Mohammed would hit a much better-looking three off of some great ball movement by Burton and Julian Roper to get the Irish back within ten, but yet another Knueppel three halted the momentum.
Duke would continue to have an answer for every Irish mini-run. Notre Dame continued to struggle to guard Maluach, who seemed to be able to roll for lobs at the rim at will, and Flagg was fantastic at scoring at all three levels. The Irish weren’t able to get much going below the three point arc, and were dependent on scorching-hot three point shooting just to keep the lead in the low double-digits. J.R. Koniezcny would make a corner three to cut it to ten, and after a nice Marcus Burton block, Shrewsberry would hit a miracle runner at the buzzer but barely step over the three point line to cut the halftime deficit to 44-36.
The Irish would go small to open the second half, with Koniezcny in the starting lineup for Kebba Njie. Maluach opened the second half with yet another easy dunk, but it’s not like things were much different with Njie on the floor. However, the size difficulties were pretty evident elsewhere. Notre Dame picked up six fouls in the first four minutes of the half, and Matt Allocco in particular was getting bullied in the post by Flagg and Knueppel.
The positive effect of the lineup change was that it switched Maluach onto Tae Davis defensively, and the quicker Davis was finally able to outmaneuver his Duke defender for a couple layups. In the interim, Marcus Burton was able to hit a corner three, so the Irish were able to cut the lead down to six during a very eventful first four minutes of the half.
The momentum was short-lived. Kneuppel made yet another bully-ball bucket on Allocco and Maluach finally caught up to Davis to stuff him at the rim on the drive. A Flagg three would get the lead back up to double-digits, and Flagg would throw down a monster one-armed exclamation dunk a few possessions later to get the lead to 13. When Njie got back into the game, Flagg went right at him in the post and pushed through him for a relatively easy lay-in, and flexed on Njie to boot. It was Flagg’s 29th and 30th points of the game with 11 minutes still to play.
Meanwhile, Markus Burton picked up his third foul by bumping Flagg, and then got slapped with his fourth on a double-technical in a mild confrontation with Maluach. He went to the bench, but with the Irish trailing by 13, Micah Shrewsberry brought him back into the game with a little over 10 minutes remaining, which was likely the right decision. However, Flagg continued to feast and Maluach continued to be un-guardable down low. At the worst point, Duke held a 79-61 advantage with under four minutes to go and was showing no signs of stopping.
And then, well, they did. Njie made a hook shot over Maluach which kicked off a spirited Irish run. An and-one runner from Shrewsberry got the lead down to 13, and Burton got left wide open for a triple to drop the deficit to ten with just over two minutes left. Duke would come up empty in their trip down the floor, and then Maluach would get called for goaltending on a Burton runner, as he stuck his hand through the hoop to knock away the ball.
The Irish caught a break when Shrewsberry saved a rebound under his own basket right at Flagg, who couldn’t corral it. A good effort from Koniezcny kept the play alive, and Burton tied up a Blue Devil with the possession arrow favoring Notre Dame. A vintage Mike Brey-era drive, kick, and swing for a corner three for Allocco dropped the lead down to five with just under a minute left, driving fear into the hearts of the Cameron Crazies.
Some fantastic defense from Kebba Njie led to another jump ball, and Julian Roper came up with a huge strip of Kneuppel to get the ball back. Allocco would get a deep look at a PUJIT three, but it glanced off the front of the rim. The Irish had to foul, which ended the 13-0 run. Cooper Flagg would ice the game at the free throw line, finishing with a staggering 42 points, which now stands as a new ACC freshman record.
We may be sick of moral victories at this point, but this was Duke’s closest game in their currently-undefeated ACC season, and easily the closest on their home court. A more well-regarded Pittsburgh team got blitzed 76-47 in this building earlier this week. A glass half-full person would take today’s effort as an indicator that the Irish are significantly better than their record. A glass half-empty person would point to the Irish needing to shoot 58% from three (14-for-24) to make it this close, and that NCAA tournament bids are based on wins rather than fight. Your mileage may vary.
Bullet Points:
- Kebba Njie had probably his most aggressive drive to the hoop for a dunk attempt that he’s shown this season. He missed and was fouled, which seems like a best-case scenario for such plays when there’s a defender nearby.
- Matt Allocco drew a charge on Cooper Flagg in the first half that elicited a technical foul from Jon Scheyer, who seemed to want it. Braeden Shrewsberry missed both free throws.
- Duke’s Maliq Brown exited the game with a knee injury early on and would not return.
- One big positive to take away from this game was that it was easily Sir Mohammed’s best showing of the season. In addition to scoring 11 points in his 15 minutes, he poked the ball away for a steal off a rebound in the second half, and was able to get it to Burton for a three.
- If you take out the 14-0 Duke run that started the game, Notre Dame won this one 78-72. You can’t do that though.