2026 ACC Tournament: Duke wins back-to-back ACC Championships

Top-seeded Duke took control early and stayed the course in a 73-61 win against Clemson in their ACC Tournament semifinal matchup on Friday night.

The Blue Devils will try to win their second consecutive ACC title on Saturday night against No. 2 seed Virginia.

• Box Score

No. 1 Duke ran out to a 19-point halftime lead and then held the Tigers at bay the rest of the way.

Cameroon Boozer led Duke with yet another double-double, scoring 24 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. He also had five assists.

His brother Cayden Boozer, starting for the injured Caleb Foster, also had a big game, scoring a career-high 16 points and Nikolas Khamenia added 14 off the bench.

Duke (31-2) will play for its second straight ACC Tournament title and third in the last four years.

RJ Godfrey had 18 points for Clemson (24-10).

Cameron Boozer, the ACC player of the year, showed off his diverse skill set, scoring from the low post, mid-range, and from deep, where he knocked down three 3s. He even ran the point at times and was dominant on the boards, helping Duke outrebound Clemson 41-27.

Trailing 16-15, Duke began to pull away late in the first half as Dame Sarr and Darren Harris connected on 3s as part of a 14-2 run that gave the Blue Devils their first double-digit lead.

The Blue Devils closed the first half on a 26-6 run to take a 41-22 lead at the break. Clemson went 1 of 15 from the field over the last 12 minutes of the half and missed its last 10 shots.

The Tigers began to heat up in the second half and closed the gap to 12 with 2 1/2 minutes remaining, but Cameron Boozer hit a long 3 from the top of the key to thwart the rally.

The Blue Devils beat Virginia 77-51 at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Feb. 28. They will look for another dominant performance in the championship game. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. on ESPN.

-- The Associated Press contributed.

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Scenes from the court as Duke prepared to take on Clemson on Friday night in an ACC Tournament semifinal.

No. 2 seed Virginia had no problem handling Miami in the first ACC Tournament semifinal, winning 84-62 on Friday night.

Ugonna Onyenso scored 17 points to go along with four blocks and Thijs De Ridder and Sam Lewis added 16 points for the Cavaliers, who await the winner of Duke vs. Clemson.

• Box Score

Tru Washington led the Hurricanes with 13 points off the bench. Shelton Henderson added 12.

This story will be updated.

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Syracuse University has hired Bryan Blair as its athletic director at a time when the ACC school is searching to regain relevance and with its once-proud men's basketball program in transition.

The 40-year-old Blair takes over after spending the past four years holding the same job at Toledo, where in 2022 he was the nation's youngest AD. And Syracuse is counting on Blair's youth and familiarity with the NCAA's changing revenue landscape to guide Orange athletics into the future. Blair replaces John Wildhack, who had previously announced he was retiring in July following a 10-year tenure. One of Wildhack's final decisions was firing men's basketball coach Adrian Autry on Wednesday.

And at Pitt, the school announced that Jeff Capel is sticking around as head coach.

Athletic director Allen Greene announced Friday that Capel will be back for a ninth season despite a disappointing 13-20 mark this year that ended with a 98-88 loss to N.C. State in the second round of the ACC Tournament.

"I believe our best path forward is leadership continuity paired with clear expectations and a willingness to evolve," Greene said in a statement.

Capel, who has four years left on the contract extension he signed in 2024, is 127-127 at Pitt. The Panthers have made the NCAA tournament just once during Capel's tenure, when the 2022-23 team won 24 games and advanced to the second round.

Pitt narrowly missed the tournament in 2024 and saw a 12-2 start to the 2024-25 season turn into a sluggish 17-15 finish. Things weren't any better this winter, leading to a dwindling of fan support and speculation about Capel's job security.

Greene put that speculation to rest, for now anyway. He pointed to the way the Panthers played down the stretch while winning four of their final seven games as proof that all is not lost.

"They fought until the end and represented this university with toughness," Greene said. "Effort alone is not enough. We must be better going forward. I know it. Jeff knows it."

The 51-year-old Capel was hired away from Mike Krzyzewski's staff at Duke in 2018 to turn around a program left in tatters after Kevin Stallings' ugly two-year stint that included going winless in the ACC in Stallings' final season.

-- The Associated Press contributed.