Duke locks down Clemson, advances in Charlotte
CHARLOTTE – The second game was not the same thriller that started its ACC tournament with.
All the better for the Blue Devils’ blood pressure.
Duke rolled past Clemson 73-61 on Friday night in a semifinal game at Spectrum Center.
Duke (31-2) will play Virginia in the ACC championship on Saturday night. The No. 2 seed Cavaliers demolished Miami, 84-62, in the first semifinal on Friday night.
After surviving Florida State’s upset bid on Thursday night, there was no such drama repeated in this one.
Clemson (24-10) did not make a field goal for the last 7½ minutes of the first half. That’s how Duke built a 19-point halftime lead.
The closest the Tigers got in the second half was 10, and that was in the final minute.
Cameron Boozer carried a heavy burden again offensively. The freshman star had 24 points and 14 rebounds, his 18th double-double of the season. He also had five assists.
He was joined by two other freshmen with big scoring nights.
Cayden Boozer scored a season-high 16 points. Clemson didn’t deploy the same dare-him-to-shoot defense that FSU did and he played more confident.
Nikolas Khamenia matched a season-high with 14 points. He and the bigger Boozer each hit three 3s, helping offset a night in which Isaiah Evans missed all six 3s he took.
The start of this game was slow on the scoreboard. And then it was fairly even, each team trading buckets as they found their footing.
The spurt was a 10-0 run by the Blue Devils, going from a one-point lead to a 29-18 advantage. Cayden Boozer scored five of those points and Darren Harris nailed a 3-pointer that got a big celebration from Duke’s staff and family section.
It was Duke’s 36th kill shot — a run of at least 10 straight points, tracked on EvanMiya.com — of the season.
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