DURHAM, N.C. — Cooper Flagg cut across the court to catch an early kickout feed and knocked down a 3-pointer from the wing. Moments later, he was alone in the left corner and confidently had a catch-and-score for another 3.
No hesitation.
And no stopping until the 18-year-old accomplished something that no freshman had ever done in Atlantic Coast Conference history.
The 6-foot-9 Flagg scored 42 points to set a conference freshman single-game scoring record Saturday, helping fourth-ranked Duke beat Notre Dame 86-78. It was a performance that put the preseason Associated Press All-American alongside some prominent names in the history of the blueblood program and its longtime league home.
“I was just out there playing,” Flagg said as he sat at his locker afterward surrounded by reporters. “When I’m in the game, I don’t really know what’s going on. I’m just playing locked in.”
Flagg had long been mentioned as a potential No. 1 overall NBA draft pick before leaving his home state of Maine and heading to Durham. His every move on court had been dissected all season, from late-game turnovers in losses to No. 6 Kentucky and No. 11 Kansas to his strong play in a March-worthy matchup that handed No. 2 Auburn its only loss.
This week offered the perfect example. His coast-to-coast dunk in transition against Pittsburgh on Tuesday was a jaw-dropper and highlight-reel signature on an impressive win. This time, he was electric from start to finish, finishing with the highest scoring output by a Duke player at its famed Cameron Indoor Stadium home since 1976, and most by any Blue Devil since Danny Ferry’s program-record 58 points at Miami in December 1988.
Before Saturday, Flagg’s season high was 26 points.
“He’s being himself,” teammate Sion James said. “And that’s the magic of Cooper Flagg, being himself. He’s not forcing anything. He’s just being a player, taking the looks as they come. He saw something he liked, and 42 points later, here we are.”
Flagg made 11 of 14 shots in roughly 36 minutes, including 4 of 6 3-pointers to continue his recent improved long-range touch. He saw work as the primary ballhandler and attacked the paint, taking advantage of mismatches to draw 13 fouls and get to the line 17 times (he made 16, a Duke freshman record) while Notre Dame had just 16 attempts as a team.
“It’s a huge part of the game if you’re able to get in the paint and get fouled,” Flagg said, “so I was kind of able to get that going early and was kind of able to live in the paint tonight.”
Flagg also had six rebounds and seven assists, including a high-low pass for 7-2 teammate Khaman Maluach for an alley-oop dunk on Duke’s opening possession.
“They’ve got the right mix of guys with him,” Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “If they had him and they didn’t have shooting or they had people that needed the ball and were ball-dominant, then it probably wouldn’t work. But they’ve done a good job evaluating and finding the right people to put around him, so it makes him a really tough matchup.”
Flagg called it one of his more aggressive offensive performances from the start, partly due to getting those early clean looks to find a quick flow. As he pressed on, the fouls and contact kept coming — enough so that Duke coach Jon Scheyer had his own rare eruption, this one of demonstrative fury.
It came after Flagg was called for a first-half offensive foul for pushing off on a drive against Notre Dame’s Matt Allocco. As Allocco hit the floor, Scheyer practically ran from the sideline to the edge of the midcourt circle yelling “No way!” and yelling that Allocco had grabbed Flagg before waving emphatically in disgust as associate head coach Chris Carrawell tried to guide him back to the bench.
It marked only the second technical foul of Scheyer’s three-year head-coaching career, though he was focused on making a larger point.
“People are going to do things to try to make it easier to guard him,” Scheyer said of Flagg. “And grabbing and holding is going to be something that’s there. So it wasn’t just one play isolated for me. It’s just understanding that he does get hit.
“Again … I have a ton of respect for those three officials, the officiating in our league. But I’m also going to advocate for our guys when I feel like something isn’t being called the right way or respected.”
By Saturday’s horn, Flagg had surpassed the previous ACC freshman record of 41 points from Boston College’s Olivier Hanlan against Georgia Tech in the 2013 ACC Tournament. Only two other freshmen in league history, both from North Carolina, have reached the 40-point mark: Tyler Hansbrough (40) in February 2006 and Harrison Barnes (40) in the 2011 ACC Tournament.
Flagg hit the 40-point mark on two free throws with 25.7 seconds left as Duke clung to an 80-76 lead after squandering most of an 18-point lead. He broke the ACC record with two more free throws with 4.9 seconds left, after the “Cameron Crazies” had chanted his name as he walked to the line.
So how does a teenage basketball prodigy celebrate history? His plans didn’t sound nearly so memorable.
“Probably just going to hang out with my teammates, have a chill night,” Flagg said. “There’s a lot of good basketball games on tonight.”
