No. 11 Duke bounced back from its close-shave loss to No. 1 Kansas earlier in the week with a beatdown at home Friday night of Seattle inside Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils dominated the visiting Redhawks in a 70-48 win behind yet another complete performance from star freshman Cooper Flagg, who finished the game with nine points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
It marked a new career-high in assists for Flagg, who did his damage despite playing only 27 minutes in the blowout, and put him one point and one rebound shy of a third career-double-double. In those 27 minutes he finished with a team-high plus/minus of plus-23.
Scoring wasn’t what Flagg did best vs. Seattle — he finished 2-of-7 from the field and 0-of-2 from 3-point range — but he facilitated and saw the floor better than any other game this season and played selflessly on an off night shooting the ball. That’s an improvement for the 17-year-old phenom, whose late-game blunders vs. Kentucky and Kansas have come at inopportune times and unfortunately highlighted some of his still-growing maturing that’s necessary. He remains a work in progress with the ball in his hands at times, yet continues to produce in the stat sheet like a potential All-American.
Up next is a major showdown next Wednesday vs. an Auburn team that will likely rise to No. 2 in the polls next week.
You gotta see this
Flagg threw down (another) major dunk in the first half to help set the tone and get the Cameron Crazies juiced up just before halftime. He makes transition buckets look effortless with his length and explosiveness, and that was the case here as he casually finished with two hands above the rim.
Key stat
7 assists: Flagg had a season-high for assists despite riding the pine for most of the final 10 minutes of the game. That not only bested his previous career-high of six assists but was also the second-most for any Duke player in a single…
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