ACC Tournament live updates: No. 1 Duke basketball advances, will meet UNC in semifinal
As ACC Tournament quarterfinal day arrived, the league’s top teams — including the nation’s No. 1-ranked team, the Duke Blue Devils — hit the Spectrum Center court.
After two days of play, the top eight seeds paired off in four games to decide Friday’s semifinalists.
That’s right. One year after N.C. State surprised everyone by winning the league title as a No. 10 seed, no lower-seeded teams advanced through the first two days to the reach the quarterfinals this year.
Top-seeded Duke, the league’s regular-season champion, trying to build a case for possibly being the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA Tournament, took the court first against No. 8 Georgia Tech, and battled through multiple injuries to earn a win in the first game of the day.
Auburn is considered the leader for that honor. But Duke, the top-rated team in metrics like the NET and KenPom, has a case. That’s especially true because Duke beat Auburn, 84-78, at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Dec. 4.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi believes Auburn has such an edge, based on its 16-4 record in Quad 1 games, that it can’t be caught. The path for Duke, he said, would be for it to roll through through the ACC Tournament unchallenged while Auburn loses in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals on Friday.
But even then, he said, the result would be the same with the NCAA selection committee placing Auburn in the South Region with Duke in the East.
So, he said, it’s much ado about nothing for the Blue Devils.
“They’re going to be the No. 1 seed in the East,” Lunardi said. “We don’t know if the East is going to be the No. 1 region in the pecking order. And does it really matter? Right? I mean, I suppose being No.1 overall would mean, conceivably, they would get the fourth best team in the country at the Final Four, instead of second or third. But, I mean, we’re really talking about a distinction without a difference. And that’s assuming that the one seeds all advance to San Antonio. We know that in 40 years of this format, it’s happened exactly once. So I wouldn’t lose any sleep if I were Duke at this point.”
Duke’s fortunes took a hit late in the first half, however. Trailing by five at the break, the bigger news was who was missing. Star freshman Cooper Flagg went to the locker room in serious pain after appearing to roll his left angle while grabbing a defensive rebound. He did not return.
Maliq Brown, just recently returned from a shoulder injury, also left the first half, clutching that same shoulder.
In the second game of Thursday’s afternoon slate, North Carolina (22-12) got another shot at Big Four nemesis Wake Forest (21-11), and made it count. The Tar Heels slugged out a 68-59 win over the Demon Deacons to earn a shot at Duke in the ACC semifinals.
On Thursday night, the tournament’s Nos. 2 and 3 seeds, Louisville and Clemson, made their tournament debuts.
Follow along here throughout the day for updates from the Spectrum Center.
Duke 78, Georgia Tech 70
The Blue Devils won, 78-70, after trailing by as many as 14, but at tremendous cost.
They lost Cooper Flagg to a left ankle injury, one that left him punching the padded chairs on the bench in frustration. And they lost Maliq Brown to a re-injured left shoulder, orchestrating their second-half comeback without their best player and one of their best defenders.
While Duke may have benefited from enduring a little adversity after an ACC campaign that didn’t offer much of it, the Blue Devils certainly didn’t want to see Flagg sitting in a wheelchair, however briefly.
Flagg returned to the bench early in the second half to watch the conclusion; Brown did not. Their availability for Friday night’s semifinal against the North Carolina-Wake Forest winner remains in doubt, a concern far more pressing for top-seeded Duke than anything else that might happen in Charlotte.
Kon Knueppel had a game-high 28 points and eight assists for Duke, with Isaiah Evans adding 14 and Khaman Maluach also adding 14. Duncan Powell led Georgia Tech with 24 points.
UNC 68, Wake Forest 59
It felt as much like a grudge match as a basketball game in March, and was played that way.
It also had the distinct feel of an elimination game in March, which it might turn out to be.
After 40 minutes of elbows thrown, bodies falling, rushed shots, blocked shots, hard fouls and board crashing mixed in with some hard-earned baskets, North Carolina emerging with a 68-59 victory over Wake Forest in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament at the Spectrum Center.
That set up another meeting of UNC and Duke. They’ll go at it in the semifinals, with the status of Duke star Cooper Flagg in doubt because of a sprained ankle.
Louisville 75, Stanford 73
The Cardinals, plural, were better than the Cardinal, singular, by two points, plural, on Thursday to advance to their first ACC semifinal round since joining the conference.
Chucky Hepburn’s putback jumper at the buzzer lifted second-seeded Louisville over No. 7 Stanford after the Cardinals overcame a 15-point, second-half deficit.
Terrence Edwards scored 25 points and Hepburn added 20 for the Louisville (26-6), which has now won 10 straight. Noah Waterman and James Scott each had 12.
Oziyah Sellers had 22 points and Maxime Raynaud added 17 points for Stanford (20-13), which was playing in its first ACC Tournament.
Clemson 57, SMU 54
Clemson is moving on in the ACC Tournament. Barely.
The Tigers didn’t look like a top seed for various stretches but scraped out a 57-54 win over SMU in their opening ACC Tournament game on Thursday night.
Veteran guard Chase Hunter scored a game-high 21 points on 7-13 shooting and had a number of clutch late buckets as the Tigers outlasted a feisty SMU squad.
With a three-point win in the quarterfinals, No. 3 seeded Clemson advances to a Friday night semifinal game against No. 2 Louisville at the Spectrum Center.
The Tigers (27-5) are now two wins away from a coveted ACC tournament championship, something they’ve never won in their program’s history.
ACC tournament schedule
At Spectrum Center, Charlotte
Game 1: No. 12 Notre Dame 55, No. 13 Pittsburgh 54
Game 2: No. 15 California 82, No. 10 Virginia Tech 73, 2OT
Game 3: No. 14 Syracuse 66, No. 11 Florida State 62
Wednesday’s games
Game 4: No. 8 Georgia Tech 66, No. 9 Virginia 60
Game 5: No. 5 UNC 76, No. 12 Notre Dame 56
Game 6: No. 7 Stanford 78, No. 15 Cal 73
Game 7: No. 6 SMU 73, No. 14 Syracuse 53
Thursday’s games
Game 8: No. 1 Duke 78, No. 8 Georgia Tech 70
Game 9: No. 5 North Carolina 68, No. 4 Wake Forest 59
Game 10: No. 2 Louisville 75, No. 7 Stanford 73
Game 11: No. 3 Clemson 57, No. 6 SMU 54
Friday’s games
Game 12: No. 1 Duke (29-3) vs. No. 5 North Carolina (22-12), 7 p.m. (ESPN/ESPN2)
Game 13: No. 2 Louisville (26-6) vs. No. 3 Clemson (27-5), 9:30 p.m. (ESPN/ESPN2)
Saturday’s game
Championship, 8:30 p.m. (ESPN)
This story was originally published March 13, 2025 at 11:19 AM.