DURHAM — Paolo Banchero had missed two straight shots when Clemson took a late lead over Duke. With the game on the line, Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski continued to call plays designed for the star freshman.
“It was winning time,” Banchero said. “Coach drew up the play for me again. He put the trust in me to score down low. I had no choice but to finish.”
Banchero scored four of his team-high 19 points in the final 90 seconds as ninth-ranked Duke beat Clemson 71-69 win Tuesday night.
Wendell Moore Jr. scored 13 points for the Blue Devils (16-4, 6-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), Joey Baker added 11 and Mark Williams registered his fourth double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Banchero also had seven rebounds and four assists.
P.J. Hall led Clemson (11-9, 3-6 ACC) in scoring and on the glass with 14 points and 10 boards. Hunter Tyson scored 13 points while Chase Hunter had 12.
Tyson’s layup with 3:19 remaining gave Clemson a two-point lead late.
“It’s a tough loss for them and a great win for us. Both teams played their hearts out,” Krzyzewski said. “Clemson was one play away from winning. It was that kind of game. We’ve been in a lot of them.”
Duke’s largest lead over the Tigers was seven points and it came early in the second half, following an 8-2 run where Moore tallied all of the Blue Devils’ points.
Halftime was a tie at 36.
“There were a couple opportunities in the second half, where I felt like we got some good balls inside and didn’t quite finish,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “Guarded Duke about as well as could guard them, just wasn’t quite good enough.”
Clemson shot 42.3 percent from behind the arc, second-best of a team playing Duke this year.
“We are not a perfect team. We are a young team that has had stoppage, injuries and is playing our butts off,” Krzyzewski said. “I haven’t seen a perfect team yet and we certainly are not one of them.”
Before Tuesday, Clemson was 6-0 this season when it made 10 or more 3-pointers, and 8-2 when it shot better than 40 percent from that range. The Tigers met both of those marks.
After making each of his three shot attempts Tuesday, Williams is shooting 24 of 30 on field goals over his last four games. On the other end, Williams had three blocks against Clemson and leads the ACC with 3.26 blocks per-game this season.
“Williams is an elite defensive player in this league,” Brownell said. “Gets you looking over your shoulder like, ‘Where is he?’ … PJ didn’t finish as well tonight against Mark Williams as we probably needed him to, to win the game.”
Trevor Keels missed his second straight game for Duke with a calf injury. Starting in his place again was Jeremy Roach, who had eight points and a team-high nine assists.
Duke’s next three are on the road — Saturday at Louisville, Monday at Notre Dame and a week from Saturday at Carolina. Clemson is off until next Wednesday when it hosts Florida State.
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