Overpowered: Clemson basketball blown out by Duke in key ACC road game
The Clemson men’s basketball team has been historically good on the road against ACC teams over the last two seasons.
But the Tigers have been historically bad in Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium for decades — and the greater trend won out during their latest trip to Durham.
No. 4 Duke used a huge second half to run away with an 67-54 win over No. 20 Clemson on Saturday in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated.
Duke’s win snapped Clemson’s 14-game ACC road winning streak, the conference’s longest in 25 years and tied for the second longest ever.
Clemson lost a 22nd straight game at Duke and dropped to 4-62 all-time at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Tigers haven’t beat ACC stalwart Duke at their place since January 1995, and that 31-year drought will live to see another season.
After starting 10-1 in the ACC, Clemson (20-6, 10-3 ACC) has also lost back-to-back conference games against Virginia Tech at home Wednesday and Duke on the road. It’s the team’s first ACC losing streak of 2025-26.
“I don’t think it was as much the atmosphere as just not making shots and not playing well enough,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said postgame.
Duke, which would’ve fallen into a tie with Clemson for first place in the ACC with a loss, improved to 23-2 (12-1 ACC). Star freshman forward Cameron Boozer scored 18 points, and hot-shooting guard Isaiah Evans had 17 points on 4-9 3-point shooting.
Forward Carter Welling had 12 points for Clemson, whose 54 points were a season low and the fewest the Tigers have had in a game since a 2023 loss at Boston College.
“I thought our defense was top-notch today,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “We made it really difficult on them.”
Game recap
Duke entered Saturday on a 28-game home winning streak, and the deafening atmosphere that’s allowed the Blue Devils to win 95% of their home games in four seasons under Scheyer was on display mere seconds into the Clemson game.
Star forward Boozer stole a pass, picked up his dribble around the opposing 3-point line and slammed in a dunk over Tigers forward Welling, sending a sellout crowd of 9,314 that included ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, actor Ken Jeong and former Duke star Cooper Flagg into some early hysterics.
A few huge moments like that one kept Duke ahead most of the first half — but not by much. Duke led by no more than eight points in the first 20 minutes as Clemson slowed the game down and pounded the ball in the paint to forward RJ Godfrey.
Duke led 31-26 at halftime. That five-point deficit wasn’t too bad for Clemson, considering Brownell’s team shot just 32% and 1-9 on 3-pointers.
How Duke ran away in the second half
Clemson’s cold shooting extended into the second half and quickly put the Tigers in a hole. Duke seized a double-digit lead out of the break, and Clemson couldn’t shake it. For instance: After the Tigers had a nice stretch of 4-5 shooting midway through the second half, they still trailed by 17 points (57-40) with eight minutes left.
How did the game get away from Clemson so drastically?
“You can’t score,” Brownell said. “Holding Duke to 67, I probably would’ve taken that if you told me that at the beginning of the game. It’s just, you can’t keep up.”
The Blue Devils kept their foot on the gas, leading by as many as 22, while Clemson couldn’t buy a bucket and got a forgettable afternoon from starting guards Dillon Hunter and Jestin Porter (a combined eight points on 3-11 and 1-9 3-point shooting).
Clemson’s 35.1% field goal percentage was also a season worst, and its 25% 3-point shooting was tied for its second-lowest clip in a game this season.
The Tigers ended the game on an 11-3 run after falling behind 64-42 with 4 minutes, 46 seconds remaining, which helped them avoid a complete blowout.
But the final minutes were a formality for Duke, which improved to 60-3 in home games under Scheyer and won its 16th straight home ACC game.
Brownell’s team lost its first ACC road game since Louisville in January 2025 and has lost back-to-back games for the first time since non-conference losses to ranked Alabama and BYU teams in December. Clemson has five ACC games left.
“We’re not as gifted, I don’t think, as some of the teams at the top of the league, so we have to really play at a high level,” Brownell said. “We have to minimize our mistakes. ... But we’ve had a lot of success. Let’s not let a bad week derail us.”
Next four Clemson MBB games
- Feb. 18: at Wake Forest, 7 p.m. (ACC Network)
- Feb. 21: vs. Florida State, noon (The CW)
- Feb. 28: vs. No. 24 Louisville, TBA (ESPN/ESPN2)
- March 3: at No. 11 UNC, 7 p.m. (ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU)
This story was originally published February 14, 2026 at 1:57 PM.
