Chris Clarke’s putback of a teammate’s airball with 4.1 seconds left gave Virginia Tech a 64-63 victory against No. 5 Duke on Monday night at Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg, Va.
Grayson Allen’s desperation 3-pointer was off the mark for Duke at the buzzer, prompting the home crowd to storm the court in celebration.
Clarke scored six of his eight points down the stretch for Virginia Tech (21-7, 10-7 Atlantic Coast Conference), which played in its home finale.
Allen tallied 22 points and Marvin Bagley III added 12 points for Duke (24-6, 12-5), which had a five-game winning streak snapped going into its regular-season finale Saturday at home against rival North Carolina.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker had 17 points, Justin Bibbs added 14 points, Kerry Blackshear Jr. tallied 14 points and Justin Robinson had 11 points for the Hokies, who lost Saturday at home to Louisville. This ended a three-game homestand and gave the Hokies their third victory in a five-game stretch.
Duke hadn’t allowed an opponent to reach 60 points in the previous four games.
Robinson sunk a pair of free throws at the 2:23 mark to close the gap to 61-58. Fifteen seconds later, Allen answered with two foul shots.
Virginia Tech’s Chris Clarke scored twice in a row to trim Duke’s lead to 63-62 with less than a minute to play.
Following a Duke turnover, Clarke missed a layup in transition. But Duke’s Trevon Duval missed the front end of a 1-and-1, setting up the final sequence and Clarke’s game-winner.
After a hot start, in which he scored 11 points in the first seven minutes, Allen went about 18 minutes without scoring before his 3-pointer gave Duke a 44-35 edge.
The Hokies pulled within 46-45 on Robinson’s 3-point play. But after a pair of Bagley free throws, Duke was up 60-51 with less than six minutes to play.
Duke led 33-27 at halftime despite shooting 34.4 percent from the field and committing seven turnovers.
After Duke went up by 15, Virginia Tech scored the next 11 points. Duke only twice in its final 16 first-half possessions.
It was a rematch from a Feb. 14 game when Duke won 74-52 at home.