ACC Championship: LIVE SCORE UPDATES Duke vs

“I thought he stepped on the end line”, coach Mike Brey said. They’re a gifted offensive team. “You have to beat human nature that tells you you’ve done something when there’s more to accomplish”. Duke simply didn’t care.

Jackson gives Duke a true point guard instead of Krzyzewski having to force Allen in at the point. “But what he did willing us and keeping us in it and making big plays and chasing down loose balls, it’s a great performance”. The projected National Basketball Association lottery pick then took the ball coast-to-coast to make it 68-65 with 1:35 to play. “It does come with the territory”, Duke’s Luke Kennard said, and that’s true at both Duke and North Carolina, with the two rivals in the same situation in the same place this weekend. This team has been through it all in ’16-17: a number of injuries, including one that shelved its head coach.

Not at all – he knew exactly what he was doing. The Wolfpack proceeded to lose their next seven games after beating Duke and fired coach Mark Gottfried shortly thereafter.

Jayson Tatum cleans it up! And after nearly four straight days of intense ACC play, Tatum wasn’t done yet. That, Allen said, played a direct role in the Blue Devils having the stamina to win four games in four days in Brooklyn.

“I think his demeanor is to be complimented for a young guy”, Brey said. “We’re prepared for this”.

There are great teams across America, but there isn’t another collection of players like Duke’s. So we’ve had to beat human nature like insane here because you beat Louisville in that game, whoa, now we play Carolina, whoa. And today was the championship game.

Two second-half double-digit comebacks propelled Duke to wins, first against No. 9 Louisville on Thursday and then the Tar Heels on Friday.

Tatum, who has rapidly inserted himself into the best-player-in-the-country discussion, led Duke with 19 points and eight rebounds, including some of the most important plays in the Blue Devils’ 75-69 victory over the Irish in the championship game Saturday night in Brooklyn.

-Louisville has won 31 of its last 40 games in the month of March. “We’ve won, this is our 14th, but this one’s so different.’ I can’t say, well, it was like this one or like that – no, it was not like anything”.

“We have to stay poised”, Kennard said. No one was ever like rattled.

If Oregon’s Chris Boucher didn’t tear his ACL in the Pac-12 tournament, I would’ve paid good money to see the Ducks play Kansas in the Elite Eight here. You see guys splinter. He walked back into the huddle at the under-eight timeout with no obvious sign of discomfort. “It’s the rhythm to our program, and I’m really proud of this next wave of old guys that are leading the team”.

Nate Britt’s conventional three-point play tied it at 70 for the Tar Heels, but a layup from Frank Jackson, a 3-pointer from Kennard and a dunk from Harry Giles pushed the Duke lead to 77-70 with 5:30 remaining.

Once again, multiple scorers made Duke tough to handle. Duke F Amile Jefferson is the 11th player in school history to score 1,000 points and grab at least 900 rebounds.

With that, the ACC championship belonged to Duke for the first time since 2011. And it all shows – it’s not quite a team unburdened by the preseason expectations placed upon it (and its No. 1 ranking), but it might just be getting there.

“I’m a little wacky here because I can’t compare this to anything”, he said. “We’re happy right now, and we’re looking forward to our next step this season”.