On Monday, Nov. 4, the University of Maine men’s basketball team fell to the Duke Blue Devils 96-62 inside Cameron Indoor Stadium. It was somewhat of a homecoming for Duke’s star freshman, Cooper Flagg, who is from Newport, Maine. Flagg was the first freshman to be named the Maine Gatorade Player of the Year. His mother, Kelly Flagg, played for UMaine and his brother Ace Flagg recently committed to the Black Bears.
Maine was ranked 4th in the America East preseason poll, marking the highest preseason ranking in 13 years. Head Coach Chris Markwood is entering his third season and has improved his record every year since joining the program.
Duke opened up the scoring with a driving layup by first-year forward Kon Knueppel. Flagg initially struggled offensively but found his other first-year teammate, center Khaman Maluach, multiple times early off drives and dump offs for layups.
Maine was able to hang in with the Blue Devils early thanks to offensive rebounds and forcing turnovers. Grad student Kellen Tynes put Maine on the board after ripping the ball away from a Duke player and grabbing his miss for a layup. Tynes got another offensive rebound that led to back-to-back scores for fourth-year guard Quinn Burns.
That’s when the Duke freshman came alive. Knueppel went on his own 7-2 run. Flagg finally got on the board after knocking down a pair of free throws. Then Knueppel drilled a deep transition three, despite getting fouled. A Duke lead of 4 expanded to 14 in two minutes.
Fourth-year forward Christopher Mantis ended the Maine scoring drought by knocking down his second three of the game. This sparked 9 unanswered points by the Black Bears. Tynes, Burns, and third-year guard Jaden Clayton were able to attack Maluach in drop coverage. While Maluach won plenty of the battles, the paint penetration led to some mid-range makes from the guard trio.
Flagg scored his first basket off an offensive rebound, then punched in a massive driving dunk. Duke led going into the second half 44-33. Maine’s offense had some success but was forced to take shots deep into the shot clock thanks to the tight Duke defense. The Black Bear defense forced eight first-half turnovers. The unsung hero of the first twenty minutes was third-year forward Keelan Steele. Steele battled with injury the past two seasons and was forced to redshirt, but he made his impact in this game with multiple impressive footwork and tough post finishes.
Burns and third-year Duke guard Tyrese Proctor traded threes to open the second half. Steele then scored an and-one off an offensive rebound over Maluach, who went down and returned the favor with an and-one of his own. That unfortunately was Steele’s fifth foul, ending his night early.
After that, Duke started to run away with the game. The offense was beginning to click with some great off-ball movement and cutting. The Blue Devils also started crashing the offensive glass, gaining multiple extra possessions which led to points. Proctor started to heat up, scoring all 10 of his points in the second half. Second-year guard Logan Carey was able to score on an excellent spin move where he got fouled, but it wasn’t able to turn the tide of Maine.
Proctor hit a big three that felt like the dagger, and second-year guard Caleb Foster nailed another to give Duke the then-largest lead of the night, 85-56. Flagg seemingly got hurt on a driving layup attempt with just under 4 minutes remaining. It was later found out that he was dealing with a bad case of cramps, something that NBA All-Star Paolo Banchero dealt with during the first couple of games of his one season at Duke a couple of years ago.
Flagg finished with 18 points, 7 rebounds, and a team-high 5 assists and 3 steals. Knueppel scored a game-high 22 points. Duke had six different players reach double digits. For Maine, Burns had a team-high 15 while Steele also reached double digits with 11 points in only 12 minutes.
