Thriller in Atlanta: 4 takeaways from Duke basketball’s nail-biting loss to Kentucky

In his first game on a big college basketball stage, Duke freshman Cooper Flagg showed a scoring touch that makes him one of the nation’s top players.

His miscues late, though, meant he and the No. 6 Blue Devils led a lead get away as No. 19 Kentucky toppled the Blue Devils, 77-72, in the Champions Classic at State Farm Arena.

Flagg scored 26 points for Duke (2-1). His basket with 1:12 to play tied the score at 72. But that play came in the midst of Flagg committing turnovers on three of Duke’s final four possessions.

After a Flagg turnover, Kentucky’s Otega Oweh hit two free throws with 10.3 seconds left to give the Wildcats the lead for good. Flagg attempted to maneuver for an answer for Duke, but fell and lost the ball out of bounds with 5.1 seconds to play.

Andrew Carr led the Wildcats (3-0) with 17 points while Oweh added 15.

Flagg was one of four Duke players who scored in double-figures. Kon Knueppel scored 14 while Tyrese Proctor added 12 and Khaman Maluach 10.

Here are four takeaways from the game:

Blue Devils struggled with 3-pointers

Duke made 41.8% of its 3-point shots while beating Maine and Army West Point in the season’s first week. That shot remained a large part of Duke’s offense against Kentucky, but the Blue Devils weren’t nearly as accurate.

Duke attempted 23 3-pointers against the Wildcats, making only four.

That’s a big reason why Duke’s lead was only 56-53 with 11:18 to play. At that point, Duke was just 3 of 18 on 3-pointers.

But Flagg drilled one with 10:21 to play, after he’d made a nice pass to Mason Gillis for a basket in the lane on Duke’s previous possession, to give the Blue Devils some breathing room with a 61-53 lead. But the Blue Devils didn’t make another one the rest of the half, finishing 1 of 11 in the second half.

Duke needed Flagg to score; he delivered

With his teammates struggling to hit shots, Flagg had to play like the presumed No. 1 pick in the draft to give his team a chance to win.

He did that, hitting 9 of 19 shots to lead Duke in scoring.

He scored 13 of his points in the second half, seeming to have solved the cramping issues that limited his availability in Duke’s two wins last week.

After scoring 12 points in 12 minutes of play, Flagg picked up his second foul and went to the bench with 6:40 left in the first half. Duke lead 30-24 when he left.

When Flagg returned for the final 5.2 seconds of the half following a Kentucky turnover, Duke’s lead was 46-37.

That’s because Knueppel picked up his scoring game with Flagg on the bench. Knueppel scored all 12 of his first-half points in the final 8:23 until halftime with seven of them coming while Flagg was out of the game.

But Flagg handled the bulk of Duke’s scoring in the second half. That was enough — until the final two minutes when his three turnovers helped Kentucky escape with the win.

Kentucky’s 3-point shooting hurt Duke

The Wildcats made their first five 3-pointers, which allowed them to take an early 19-13 lead and excite the large number of Kentucky fans who made the trip to Atlanta.

When those shots stopped falling, Duke took advantage and turned that deficit in to a lead as large as 10 points. Kentucky missed eight consecutive 3-pointers after it made those first five in a row.

But the Wildcats found their range just often enough in the second half to finally erase Duke’s lead.

For the game, Kentucky finished 10 of 25 on 3-pointers for an effective 40%.

Duke took care of the ball, until....

The Blue Devils only turned the ball over seven times against Kentucky, something that will be important to maintain as the season progresses.

What has to change is key turnovers that happened late in the game that turned the game in Kentucky’s favor.

While building their 46-37 halftime lead, the Blue Devils turned the ball over just once in the first 20 minutes of play.

That helped the Blue Devils overcome poor first-half 3-point shooting (3 of 12) because empty possessions from missed shots weren’t compounded by turnovers also limiting scoring chances.

That was just as important after halftime, when Duke made just 8 of its first 30 shots in the second half. That allowed Kentucky to chip away at the Blue Devils lead, finally catching Duke for the first time in the second half when Andrew Carr converted a traditional three-point play with 3:57 to knot the score at 67.

But Duke had four turnovers in the game’s final three minutes, including three by Flagg in the final 90 seconds.