1990 Duke at Clemson Men's Basketball

Littlejohn Coliseum

Clemson, SC

Feb 28, 1990

Duke Blue Devils at Clemson Tigers

These two teams were in some respects very evenly matched. They were tied for first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference and had almost identical win loss records. Both teams were ranked nationally.

Duke came into this game with a record of 23-5 (9-3 ACC) and ranked 12th nationally. The two non-conference losses were to nationally ranked teams, Syracuse and Michigan. The three conference losses were all road games. They lost at North Carolina by a point, at Virginia by three points, and at North Carolina State by 5 points.

Clemson came into this game with a record of 22-5 (9-3 ACC) and ranked 20th nationally. The two non-conference losses were to Alabama and Villanova. The three conference losses were all road games. They lost at North Carolina State by two points, at North Carolina by 23 points, and at Duke by 14 points.

Both teams came out ready to play. Christian Laettner picked up two personal fouls in the first 90 seconds of the game and had to sit down. The score was tied 10-10 at the first TV timeout. Duke scored a few more points than Clemson did between the first two TV timeouts but there were also a number of personal fouls called. The Blue Devils had the lead at that point 21-18. Clemson's bench players stepped up and scored some big baskets and Duke continued to play strong.

The score was tied once again at the 3rd TV timeout of the first half with the score 34-34. Duke pushed ahead a little bit and had the lead 43-40 with just under 4 minutes to go in the half. Duke looked like they were going to go into halftime with a lead of six points or more but Dale Davis scored the last 5 points of the half for the Tigers to cut the Blue Devils lead to just 53-51.

The leading scorers of the first half were Christian Laettner and Dale Davis, with 13 points a piece. They both finished the first half with two personal fouls.

Clemson started the second half strong and were up by 2 at the first time out, 55-57. They pushed that lead up to as many as 6 and were up by four at the next TV timeout when the score was 68-72. They pushed their lead up to 7 points, with 8 minutes to go in the half, 72-79. Duke looked worn down although they continued to play as strong as they could. The pace of the game started to slow down and it seemed to favor the Blue Devils. They cut into the lead and were only down by 3 with 2:45 to go in the game and the score was 82-85.

Duke cut the lead to 1 with about 90 seconds to go in the second half. The Blue Devils turned up the pressure but Laettner committed two quick fouls, the second of which sent one of the Tigers to the line to shoot a 1-and-1. He hit both baskets. The Tigers were up by 3. Clemson scored another basket after Duke lost possession due to a charging foul. Bobby Hurley answered for Duke by hitting a 3 pointer to pull the Blue Devils within 2 with 36 seconds to go in the game.

Laettner fouled out of the game while committing a foul that sent one of the Tigers to the line to shoot two. The Tigers went up by 4 after they hit both free throws but Duke came down and scored a basket fairly quickly to cut the lead to 2 plus the shooter got fouled. Duke missed the free throw and that was pretty much it. The Blue Devils sent one of the Tigers to the line. He hit both free throws. The Blue Devils had another shot at scoring but there was barely any time left and they missed the only shot they took.

Clemson would go on to win the ACC regular season title with a record of 10-4. Duke finished second in the league standings. Both teams had one remaining game in conference play before the conference tournament. Duke lost at home to North Carolina by 12. Clemson lost at Georgia Tech by 16. Both Duke and Clemson lost in the semi-final round of the ACC Conference Tournament. The Tigers won their first two games in the NCAA tournament but then lost in the regional semi-final to Connecticut by 1 point. The Blue Devils made it all the way to the final game of the the NCAA tournament where they lost to UNLV by 30 points.

This was a fun game to watch. The game got a little slow in the midst of the second half but towards the end Duke really turned up the heat and looked like they were going to steal one. Duke is the team that I love to hate. This game was broadcast on ESPN so there's no way that I would have seen it back in the day. I was living on campus in College Park, MD and, as I recall, did not have cable TV.