Duke basketball wins a title: Three takeaways from Blue Devils’ win over Wake Forest

Another unbeaten season at home brought No. 2 Duke the first of what it hopes is many championships this season.

Behind Cooper Flagg’s 28 points, the Blue Devils beat Wake Forest, 93-60, Monday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium, clinching them at least a share of the ACC’s regular-season championship.

A seventh consecutive win, and 23rd in the past 24 games, left Duke (27-3, 18-1 ACC) perfect in 17 games at home. With only Saturday’s game at rival North Carolina remaining in the regular season, the Blue Devils can do no worse than tie No. 11 Clemson (24-5, 16-2 ACC) or No. 14 Louisville (23-6, 16-2 ACC) in the final league standings.

Duke can lock up the No. 1 seed for next week’s ACC Tournament in Charlotte if it beats UNC, or if Clemson loses either of its final two regular-season games — Wednesday at Boston College or Saturday at home with Virginia Tech.

By shooting just 32.8%, Wake Forest (20-10, 12-7 ACC) saw its chances for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid weakened further as it squandered an opportunity to gain a much-needed Quad 1 win. The Demon Deacons entered the night No. 68 in the NET with a 2-6 record in Quad 1 games.

Duke’s regular-season championship is its second in the past four seasons since it won the title outright during Mike Krzyzewski’s final season as head coach in 2021-22. The Blue Devils have now won or shared 21 ACC regular-season titles.

The Blue Devils’ 17-0 record at Cameron Indoor this season marked the second time in Jon Scheyer’s three seasons as head coach they’ve been perfect at home.

The bone bruise Tyrese Proctor suffered to his left knee last Tuesday night at Miami only kept him sidelined for six days, as it turned out. The 6-5 junior guard missed his first game this season when Duke beat Florida State, 100-65, on Saturday but he returned to the starting lineup against Wake Forest.

Proctor played 24 minutes, scoring 12 points on 5 of 11 shooting. He made only 1 of 6 3-pointers but had two assists.

His presence meant Duke returned to the starting lineup it has used the most this season. The Blue Devils are now 21-1 in games when using Flagg, Proctor, Kon Knueppel, Sion James and Khaman Maluach as starters.