Fittingly, defense sparked the first two plays that the Duke basketball social media team highlighted in its video recap of the No. 12-ranked Blue Devils’ top five plays in Friday night’s 69-55 road win over the No. 17 Arizona Wildcats.

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After all, Duke held Arizona to its lowest scoring total in the regular season since February 2020. And these Wildcats entered the bout averaging 94.3 points per contest.

Here are the top five plays, featuring beyond-their-years Duke basketball freshmen Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel, along with third-year Blue Devil Tyrese Proctor plus veteran newcomers Maliq Brown and Sion James:

5. Cooper Flagg’s steal and shovel pass to Tyrese Proctor for a 3-point splash early in the first half

4. Tyrese Proctor’s swipe and emphatic breakaway dunk to grow Duke’s lead to 17-14 with under 10 minutes to play before the break

3. A threaded bounce pass courtesy of Maliq Brown to a slashing Sion James for a two-handed dunk in traffic late in the first half

2. Kon Knueppel’s perseverant effort early in the second half, rebounding his contested miss from short range and pulling the trigger for a long-range swish to give the Blue Devils a double-digit advantage, plus two clutch threes late to deflate Arizona’s comeback hopes

1. Cooper Flagg’s assertive brilliance in attacking the lane for a statement slam over seven minutes into the second half

Next up for the Blue Devils (4-1, 0-0 ACC) is a Vegas Showdown battle against a fellow blueblood in the No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks (5-0, 0-0 Big 12), tipping off in T-Mobile Arena at 9 p.m. ET Tuesday (ESPN).

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