![\"NCAA](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/usatsi-28362941-1.jpg\")
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Imagn Images<\/p>\n
No. 1 Duke’s<\/a> destructive defense delivered the dagger to the ACC field Saturday in a dominant 77-51 win over No. 11 Virginia<\/a> to claim at least a share of the conference’s regular-season title.<\/p>\n That’s an alliterative way to say: the best team in college basketball officially guaranteed itself some hardware — of which there is almost certainly more on the way if it continues at this pace — and in the process it secured the No. 1 seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n The win for Duke, the No. 1 overall seed in CBS Sports Bracketology<\/a>, was as stunning as it was overwhelming. Virginia, which entered the day on a nine-game winning streak and with a 25-3 overall record on the season, was a single-digit underdog to the top-ranked team in the AP poll, carrying real hope of an upset win after more than a month since its last loss. But Duke smashed its aspirations into smithereens in no time with a wire-to-wire win. Its lead never fell below 14 points in the second half — and it ballooned at one point to as many as 28.<\/p>\n “To hold them to only 51 points says a lot about our defense,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “Our guys had a great determination and came out ready.”<\/p>\n Virginia averaged 79.2 points per game during its nine-game winning streak with a point differential among ACC teams ranking second behind only Duke. Its 51 points Saturday was its fewest in a game not just this season, but in its last 47 outings. The last time it failed to reach 51 points was when Louisville<\/a> defeated the Cavaliers on Jan. 4, 2025 in a 70-50 loss last season.<\/p>\n That was more than two months before now-Virginia coach Ryan Odom was hired to lead the Cavaliers program.<\/p>\n “[Jon Scheyer’s] team is well-balanced,” Odom said. “They know who they are on offense, they know who they are on defense, they’re a typical, tough-minded Duke basketball team that can rebound and pressure the ball.”<\/p>\n For Duke to make such a statement vs. an ACC foe is one thing. To do it one week removed from a 68-63 win over then-No. 1 Michigan<\/a> on a neutral floor, which helped catapult Duke to the No. 1 ranking Monday, is quite another. The result now has Duke’s defense — the catalyst for what could be a championship team come March Madness<\/a> — up to No. 1 in adjusted efficiency margin at KenPom.com<\/a> and BartTorvik.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Duke’s defense was better [than our offense],” Odom said. “Their defense is really good. They’re really good.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imagn Images No. 1 Duke’s destructive defense delivered the dagger to the ACC field Saturday in a dominant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[5485,7,17047,217,76938,7644,666,691,1984,1043,231,772,1544,6936,1774],"class_list":["post-631027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-acc","tag-basketball","tag-cameron-boozer","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-basketball-highlights","tag-college-basketball-scores","tag-duke","tag-duke-blue-devils","tag-louisville-cardinals","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-virginia","tag-virginia-cavaliers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116150427694751717","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}