“He was beat up and scratched up,” teammate Sion James said. “Cooper is one of the toughest guys I’ve ever played with. I trusted that if he was all right, he’d be back. He was back and better than ever.”
Coach Jon Scheyer described the injury as a bruised eyelid. The subject was personal for Scheyer, a Duke alum whose professional career ended overseas because of an eye injury.
“As a basketball player, you don’t think about injuring your eye,” Scheyer said. “That doesn’t cross your mind. I had never seen him look scared. I thought he was scared at first, rightfully so, because you don’t know how serious or permanent. … I was really nervous about him.
Flagg sat out more than 11 minutes to end the half, while the team’s eye doctor checked on him. He was back on the court for the first 12 minutes of the second half, finishing the game with 16 points on 5-for-9 shooting. He wasn’t made available to speak to reporters after the game.
“He had some vision issues in the first half and tested it out and he said he was good to go, and he was,” Scheyer said. “… He’s so tough. His mom is yelling at him to rebound and defend if he’s going back in the game, so I didn’t have to say a whole lot.”
Classmate Kon Knueppel said he was surprised Flagg was in action for the second half.
“To see him go down and stays down that worries you a little bit,” Knueppel said. “Just a couple of scratches on his face.”
For James, it was another example of the aura around Flagg.
“That’s not the craziest thing we’ve seen him do all year,” James said. “We’ve seen him do crazier things. That’s what makes him who he is.”
Earlier, Flagg made a move toward the lane and was fouled by Florida State’s Jerry Deng. Alier Maluk, a 7-foot freshman, also struck Flagg on the face during the sequence.
Flagg, who’s considered the potential No. 1 overall draft selection for the NBA, walked gingerly off the court with the aid of teammate Mason Gillis and trainer Jose Fonseca with 11:27 remaining. Duke led 14-11 at the time.
Flagg, a 6-foot-9 phenom, had just returned to the game after being treated on the bench by Fonseca for an apparent cut on his face.
Flagg exited the gym for additional evaluation before returning to the bench a few minutes later. But on the next timeout, he didn’t join the rest of the Blue Devils in the huddle around Scheyer. He was cheering from the bench as the Blue Devils extended their double-digit lead. Then with about 5 1/2 minutes on the clock in the half, he exited the gym again and returned to the bench a few minutes later.
Duke led 47-30 at the break.
Flagg entered the game averaging 19.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists.
Duke was already without starting point guard Tyrese Proctor, who sustained a knee injury Tuesday night at Miami, and injured backup forward Maliq Brown,
Earlier in the week, Flagg set an Atlantic Coast Conference record by being selected as ACC Rookie of the Week for the 11th time.
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