On Friday evening, Duke basketball advanced in the ACC tournament with a narrow win over their archrival North Carolina Tarheels. Playing without injured star Cooper Flagg, Duke raced out to a large lead in this one and had to hold on for dear life in the end, ultimately winning by three points.
For a moment, it appeared that North Carolina had tied the game with a free throw, but a lane violation was called on Jae-Lyn Withers, which wiped the point off of the board.
On the other end, Duke star Kon Knueppel knocked down two free throws to give the Blue Devils their three point margin of victory.
After the game, Knueppel took a savage shot at Duke’s rivals during his postgame press conference.
“Coach told me to go get the ball,” said Knueppel, per Carolina Blitz on X. “I’m a pretty good free throw shooter. I told Pat not to do anything stupid like get a lane violation or something in the big moment.”
The savage quote would indeed appear to be a not so subtle dig at Withers and the Tarheels, who lost to Duke for the third time this season with the defeat on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Duke will advance to play Louisville in the next round of the ACC tournament, with the championship on the line. Regardless of the outcome in that game, Duke will likely be a number one seed when the NCAA tournament bracket is revealed on Selection Sunday.
However, the Blue Devils will likely need Flagg to return sooner rather than later in order to have a legitimate chance of hoisting the trophy this season. He has already been ruled out for the rest of the ACC Tournament.
In any case, Duke and Lousiville are slated to get underway at 8:30 PM ET on Saturday. The game will be carried nationally by ESPN.
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