ATLANTA- Georgia Tech fought for a half before #5 Duke pulled away for an 82-56 win at McCamish Pavilion on Saturday afternoon. Tech fell to 5-7 on the year with the loss and 0-2 in ACC play while Duke improved to 10-2 and 2-0 in league play with the win.
The Jackets played without key rotation pieces Kowacie Reeves, Luke O’Brien, and Doryan Onwuchekwa who have all started games this season for the Jackets.
Duke coach Jon Scheyer said that he was impressed with Tech's effort in the game and how his team responded.
“I’m proud of our team and especially their response in the second half Georgia Tech played a great game in the first half and they are clearly not healthy and they didn’t have that continuity and we played a team that was not at full strength,” Scheyer said.
Tech coach Damon Stoudamire said he felt like the Jackets played well at times, but fell apart again to start the second half after pulling within five at the break.
“We gave it a fight in the first half and did some good things to get back into the game. The good thing is we fought. In the second half, we didn’t do a lot of the same things starting with the fight. Yes, Duke will have you look that way and they are #5 in the country for a reason and they are a really good team with good players. Their complimentary guys are really stars in their roles to help the two freshmen excel. You don’t get that a lot of times with college teams. Really kudos to their staff for bringing it together that way,” Stoudamire said. “We got a little disconnected in the second half and the beginning of the second half was no different than Northwestern or Cincinnati or even Georgia. The first four minutes of the second half have not been kind. We didn’t pass the ball to each other in the second half and we got selfish on the floor.”
Tech’s starting trio of guards struggled in the game with Lance Terry shooting just 3-9 with seven points, point guard Nait George was 2-10 with four points and four assists and Jaeden Mustaf was 2-9 with five points.
Coming off missing multiple games with a concussion, senior guard Javian McCollum did go 2-3 with six points in 14 minutes as he continued to work his way back into the rotation.
“What we are worried about is getting wins and I have to keep my head down and keep working,” McCollum said. “Seeing the ball go in the hoop is huge and getting fully healthy is a big part as well.”
Forward Baye Ndongo led Tech in scoring with 14 points but he was 1-4 in the second half shooting with just two points after a strong first half where he shot 5-7 from the floor.
“A lot of times what happens is, the ball goes through the net and they were scoring. It changes the rhythm of the game and with both Baye and Duncan (Powell) they have to be more disciplined in those areas. With Baye especially, he has to have the attention to detail, it has to be better. He grabs balls with two hands instead of two or rebounds with one hand instead of two, he has to realize these little things are costing us as a team and selfishly they are costing him too,” Stoudamire said.
Duncan Powell provided some first-half offense as well for the Jackets and ended up with 13 points off the bench in 24 minutes, but he was 3-10 shooting and 0-2 in the second half with two free throws.
“Duncan it is more of the seasoning and I like what he brings to us. He hasn’t had to play on a team since he has been in college where there is a game of this magnitude. The one thing I’m proud of him, he continues to work. He is an example and I sat him for a couple of games and he has come off the bench and played hard for us. I’m happy with the way he is playing and how hard he is playing for us,” Stoudamire said.
Powell said that he felt like the team let up defensively to start the second half.
“Basketball is a game of runs and sometimes you come out cold, but we have to come with more intensity and defense helps our offense. I think that would’ve helped if we came out with more intensity on defense to create offense,” Powell said.
Ndongo and starting center Ryan Mutombo had two blocks each and Ndongo had a steal as well.
Duke had four players hit double figures with guard Kon Knueppel leading the way with 18 points and five assists. Big man Khaman Maluach had 15 points and six offensive rebounds to help Duke when the Blue Devils actually missed a shot.
Duke shot 56.4 percent overall and 10-25 from three overall while the Jackets shot only 36.2 percent overall and 6-17 (35.3 percent) from three.
Star Blue Devil freshman Cooper Flagg had 13 points but needed 11 shots to get there and Ndongo did a strong job on him defensively.
Tech lost on the glass 36-25 and gave up nine offensive rebounds.
The Jackets led very early in the game and then closed the half strong after Duke went up 15 points with 4:26 left and while Duncan Powell added 11 points in the first half. Duke shot 62.5 percent in the first half but committed six turnovers while Tech had just three first half turnovers.
Georgia Tech led for most of the first five minutes of the game with Duke holding a two-point advantage at the first media timeout with 15:06 left in the half. Duke used six straight baskets to open up an 11-point lead, 22-11 at the under-12 timeout. After trailing most of the half, Tech made a late run with four straight baskets to pull within five on a Ndongo layup 39-34 with 1:08 left forcing Scheyer to use a timeout.
After a Lance Terry three in the opening minute of the second half cut the Duke lead to four, the Blue Devils went on a 9-0 run to retake control of the game 52-39 leading to a Stoudamire timeout with 16:26 left in the game. The Jackets continued the scoreless stretch for over five minutes before a lob to Ibrahim Souare pulled them within 16, 57-41. Duke pushed the lead to 20 shortly after that to put the Jackets away for good.
UP NEXT
Georgia Tech faces Alabama A&M at 2 pm on December 28. Duke will host Virginia Tech on New Year's Eve at 4:30 pm.
- S
- OG
- DT
- OG
- DT
- OG
- WR
- PRO
- WR
- OLB