Duke held UVA scoreless for a three and a half minutes late in the second half, and knocked the ‘Hoos from the ranks of the unbeaten, with a 72-70 win Saturday night in Durham.
A De’Andre Hunter layup with 4:01 to go got Virginia (16-1, 4-1 ACC) to within 61-60, but UVA would not connect again from the field until a Braxton Key dunk with 37 seconds to go.
That bucket cut the Duke lead to 69-63. Zion Williamson missed a pair of free throws two seconds later to keep the door open, and a Kyle Guy three cut the deficit to 69-66 with 23 seconds left.
R.J. Barrett made two free throws with 20 seconds left to push the lead back to five.
Key, fouled on an offensive rebound, made two free throws with 8.9 seconds left to get the margin back to 71-68.
Cam Reddish made 1-of-2 at the line to get it back to four, and Hunter hit a jumper at the buzzer to produce the final margin.
Duke (15-2, 4-1 ACC) led 37-32 at the break, despite shooting just 43.8 percent from the field, on the strength of an 11-2 advantage in second-chance points in the game’s opening 20 minutes.
Virginia would take its first lead since the opening minutes on a pair of Key free throws with 14:01 left that made it 43-42 Cavaliers.
Two Key free throws tied the game at 55 with 7:42 to go, but UVA would never lead again.
Duke made six straight from the field over a seven-minute stretch and led by as many as eight in the final minute before the late Virginia rally.
UVA shot 52.8 percent from the field (28-of-53) for the game, but was just 3-of-17 (17.6 percent) from three-point range.
Duke shot 51 percent (26-of-51) from the floor and also struggled from long-range, making just two of its 14 shots (14.3 percent).
Barrett had 30 points on 11-of-19 shooting in what isn’t even arguably his best game at Duke, in what will be his one and only college season.
Barrett played all 40 minutes.
Williamson, in 38 minutes, had 27 points, on 10-of-16 shooting from the field, and nine rebounds.
Hunter led UVA with 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the floor in 38 minutes.
Guy had 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting in 38 minutes, but he was just 2-of-7 from three-point range.
Ty Jerome also had 14 points, on 6-of-13 shooting, in 35 minutes.
Key had 11 points in 20 minutes off the bench for UVA.
Story by Chris Graham
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