### Breaking: Duke Dominates Virginia to Claim 23rd ACC Tournament Championship in Thriller at Spectrum Center
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Duke is back on top of the ACC.
Behind a masterful 28-point, 9-rebound, 7-assist performance from National Player of the Year Cooper Flagg and a lockdown second-half defensive effort, the top-seeded Blue Devils stormed past No. 3 seed Virginia 78-67 in Saturday night’s ACC Tournament championship game at Spectrum Center, capturing their 23rd conference tournament title and first since 2019.
The victory capped a perfect 5-0 run through the bracket for Jon Scheyer’s squad, avenging last year’s quarterfinal upset loss to NC State and sending a resounding message to the rest of college basketball: the Blue ←Devils are the team to beat heading into March Madness.
“It feels amazing,” said Flagg, who was named tournament MVP for the second straight year after averaging 24.6 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 5.4 assists across the five games. “This group has been through a lot this week. To finish it with a championship, cutting down the nets in front of our fans — that’s what Duke basketball is all about.”
The game was billed as a classic contrast in styles: Duke’s explosive, positionless attack against Virginia’s suffocating Pack-Line defense and deliberate tempo. For 25 minutes, Tony Bennett’s Cavaliers executed their game plan to perfection, frustrating Duke with contested mid-range jumpers and forcing 11 first-half turnovers. Reece Beekman’s 18 first-half points helped Virginia take a 38-35 lead into the locker room, and the Cavaliers pushed the margin to nine early in the second half.
Then Duke flipped the switch.
A 19-3 run over a six-minute stretch — ignited by Flagg’s personal 11-0 burst that included back-to-back threes and a thunderous transition dunk — turned a 46-39 deficit into a 58-49 lead that Virginia never recovered from. The Blue Devils held the Cavaliers to just 29 points in the final 20 minutes, forced eight turnovers, and dominated the glass 21-9 after halftime.
“We just locked in,” said sophomore guard Tyrese Proctor, who added 16 points and hit four second-half threes. “Coach told us at halftime: ‘They’re not going to speed us up, and we’re not going to let them slow us down.’ We started getting stops, pushing in transition, and Cooper took over.”
Flagg’s signature moment came with 8:42 remaining and Duke leading 60-54. After stripping Virginia’s Blake Buchanan at midcourt, Flagg rose for a one-handed windmill jam that brought the Duke-heavy crowd of 19,818 to its feet and effectively slammed the door.
Virginia never got closer than seven the rest of the way. Beekman finished with 24 points but shot just 2-of-9 after halftime. Ryan Dunn added 14 and 10 rebounds, but the Cavaliers shot only 38.5% for the game and were outscored 42-28 in the paint.
For Duke (31-3), the title completes one of the most dominant conference tournament runs in recent memory. The Blue Devils beat Miami, Florida State, Wake Forest, North Carolina (in a 84-79 semifinal classic), and now Virginia by an average margin of 14.6 points. They shot 39.8% from three for the week and held opponents to 68.2 points per game.
The championship also secured Scheyer his first ACC Tournament title in his third season as head coach and the program’s first since the Zion Williamson/RJ Barrett/Cam Reddish squad in 2019. It was Duke’s 23rd overall — extending the all-time ACC record — and their 17th under Mike Krzyzewski’s former assistants (Krzyzewski, Jeff Capel, and now Scheyer).
“This one is special because of how hard we’ve had to fight,” Scheyer said on the championship stage, confetti falling around him. “We lost some tough games in this building the last two years. To come back and win it all with this group — Cooper, Tyrese, Kon (Knueppel), Sion (James), Caleb (Foster), all of them — it means everything.”
Knueppel, the freshman sharpshooter, earned All-Tournament honors alongside Flagg with 14 points in the final. Transfer big man Maliq Brown anchored the defense with 8 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 blocks.
The win almost certainly locks Duke as the No. 1 overall seed in next week’s NCAA Tournament selection show — a position they’ve held in KenPom, NET, and every major predictive metric for the last month. The Blue Devils will enter March Madness as the betting favorite at +450 (DraftKings) to cut down nets in San Antonio.
For Virginia (26-9), the loss likely drops them to a 4-seed despite entering the week as a projected 2 or 3. The Cavaliers still earned their ninth consecutive NCAA bid under Bennett but will rue another missed opportunity on the ACC’s biggest stage.
As Duke players climbed the ladder to cut down the nets — Flagg going last and waving the championship net to all four corners of the arena — the message was clear: the 2025 Blue Devils are whole, hungry, and carrying the weight of expectation like only Duke can.
“We’re not satisfied,” Flagg said, championship hat perched backwards on his head. “This is great, but we came back to school for one reason. We’ve got a bigger net to cut down in April.”
Selection Sunday is 24 hours away. The ACC Tournament champion has been crowned.
And its name is Duke.
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