BC Loses To Flagg, Duke At Raucous Conte Forum

Chad Venning led BC with 19 points, but Flagg put on a show with 28 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks and 2 steals in 31 minutes. The Eagles also got out-rebounded 36-22 and missed12 free throws. BC also went just 5-15 from beyond the arc.

BC is now 9-9 on the year and 1-6 in the ACC. The third-ranked Blue Devils have now won 12 in a row, moving to 16-2 overall and 8-0 in the ACC.

"We had a good game plan and we were executing that plan at a high level (early on) and we got away from it a little bit," said Earl Grant. "The game got choppy. A flagrant foul here or a technical foul there. We did a good job on Flagg early, but he's hard to contain. That's a hard job for any team, not just us."

All things considered, BC gave the full house on hand - even if it was 60/40 Duke fans - quite a show in the first half and trailed by just six at the break.

Venning - who was almost unstoppable down low early on - scored the first bucket of the game as Comte was electrified to start following an incredible national anthem by 11-year old Sofia Rae. Flagg quickly responded with a bucket of his own.

A three pointer from Hand Jr. (12 points) made it 9-5 BC early. A sick back-door pass from Brown to a cutting Joshua Beadle kept Comte rocking with BC up 13-9. Moments later, a layup from Jayden Hastings on a pass from Chas Kelley pushed the lead to 18-11 and a Kelley three soon made it 20-15.

Duke took its first lead on a three (22-20) with 8:37 left in the half. The teams went back-and-forth a bit until a pretty up-and-under layup from Dion Brown cut it to 29-25 Blue Devils with about five to go. Flagg immediately responded with an and-one. Roger McFarlane pulled up for a three with the shot clock winding down to make it 38-33 Duke before a sick put-back dunk from Flagg, who let out a giant roar with the finish. One of two free throws in the final 21.8 seconds from Hand Jr. and a stop at the buzzer left the deficit at six.

The Eagles were just 4-9 at the free throw line in the first 20 minutes while Duke was 9-11. Flagg was 7-7 by himself. BC shot 58% from the field, but only attempted four three's, hitting two.

"This is as close as we're going to get to Maine. We've been here a lot. The representation of Duke fans is always great, but this was the best I think I've ever seen it," Duke head coach Jon Schyer said of the support for Flagg. "I think a lot of it has to do with Maine. That was a pretty special thing to see and obviously (Flagg) backed it up with his play."

"Going all the way back to last year, people had been talking about coming to this game," said Flagg. "I was kind of expecting (the turn out), I'm just really grateful to have such a great support system from Maine."

Unfortunately, the Duke team everyone expected to show up - the 23.5-point favorites - took the floor in the second half and never really looked back, building a 20-point (63-43) lead less than 10 minutes in.

With 7:23 remaining and Conte awfully quiet compared to about an hour prior, Flagg came up with a massive block, picked up a T and then had an assist on a three on the other end, making it 69-48.

Adding a little cherry on top to his return 'home,' Flagg buried a three with 6:03 left to make it 75-50, raising his arms and chirping at the fans as he walked to the bench for a timeout.

Over the final five minutes, the Eagles went fairly quietly as the large Duke fan base on hand enjoyed every moment. There was also a large contingent of some of the top high school players in Massachusetts on hand.

Grant is hoping the atmosphere was enough to entice some of them to end up joining the Eagles. It's probably going to take a lot more than that at this stage, but those in and around the program can certainly hope.

"We've got to keep working, keep working to try and get guys to stay home," Grant said when asked specifically how BC can keep some of the homegrown talent here. "There's a lot of talent up here. We do have guys from New England. Dion Brown's from New England. Nick Petronio's from New England and Luka Toews is from Japan, but he's been in New England in the NEPSAC.

"We're working to recruit some of those talented players and hopefully we'll find a way to get a couple of them to stay home. If they came here tonight to watch this game, they should want to come here. They should want to come here. This is a great place to be, playing at the highest level, getting one of the best educations you can get in the world. So, I hope these guys will want to come here because it's a special place."

BC's next game is on the road against UVA on Tuesday night (7 p.m.)