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Cooper Flagg drops 18 points, throws down massive dunk in Duke debut while leading Blue Devils to win over Maine

Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel combined for 40 points in Duke's 96-62 win over Maine on Monday night

ryan young
Staff writer
·3 min read
3

The Cooper Flagg era in Durham is off and running.

Flagg and No. 7 Duke cruised to a dominant 96-62 win over Maine on Monday night to officially tip off the 2024-25 men's college basketball season. It marked the first chance for fans to check out the 17-year-old star, who is widely projected to be the No. 1 overall pick in next summer’s NBA Draft and the most highly anticipated college player in recent memory.

Flagg opened his college career in front of plenty of notable Duke alumni and his family, including his twin brother who is still in high school, at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils' season opener was fittingly set against a university located less than an hour from his hometown in Maine, too. Flagg is undoubtedly one of the best basketball players to ever come out of the state. His longtime AAU coach even likened his rise to the iconic Jamaican bobsled team from the 1988 Olympics.

Flagg finished with 18 points in the win, and he picked up his first points of the night from the free throw line in the opening minutes.

Though he shot just 6-of-15 from the field and missed all four of his 3-point attempts, Flagg had his moments in the blowout win over the Black Bears. He even threw down a massive one-handed dunk late in the first half.

The Blue Devils held an 11-point lead at halftime. They flew ahead without any issue in the second half to grab their 34-point win. Flagg went down briefly late in the game after going up for a layup, but he appeared to tell a Duke trainer that he was just cramping in his calf. He was helped off the floor, but was quickly seen smiling and laughing on the bench. The Blue Devils were up 29 points at that time.

Flagg added seven rebounds and five assists. It was fellow Duke freshman Kon Knueppel that led the way for the Blue Devils. Knueppel, a five-star Rivals.com recruit out of Wisconsin, had 15 of his 22 points in the first half while shooting 5-of-8 from the field in the first 20 minutes. He finished with four rebounds and two assists, too.

Duke shot better than 55% from the field as a team, and six different players hit double figures in the win. Sophomore guard Caleb Foster added 11 points, and Sion James, who transferred in from Tulane, finished with 11 points off the bench.

Monday night wasn’t much of a challenge for either Flagg or the Blue Devils, but it was a great first start to head coach Jon Scheyer’s third campaign with the program. They’ll go up against Army later this week before key matchups against No. 23 Kentucky, No. 10 Arizona and No. 1 Kansas all before Thanksgiving.

But as far as debuts go, Flagg’s was very solid. With all of the pieces around him appearing to work perfectly right away, the Blue Devils should be a huge threat in the ACC this season.