In a battle between Top-25 ACC teams, it was the defense on both sides that took center stage, and Duke's suffocating effort to hold Georgia Tech to just five points in the final quarter and close to five-minute scoreless stretch late in the game was the difference as the No. 14 Devils pulled out a 55-50 victory on the road at McCamish Pavilion Sunday afternoon.
No. 14 Duke and No. 18 Georgia Tech were all tied up at 45-45 after a back-and-forth third quarter, but the Jackets struggled mightily on the offensive end in fourth as they were outscored 10-5 in the period. Georgia Tech went nearly five minutes without a point down the stretch with Duke making everything difficult with their defense. Tonie Morgan made a shot with 5:13 left on the clock, and a Kara Dunn free throw with 26 seconds left was the next time (and final time) the Jackets saw the ball go through the net.
"I think that Duke is probably the best defensive team in the country," said Georgia Tech head coach Nell Fortner. "They absolutely played phenomenal defense and did exactly what they needed to do to beat us. They shut down people they needed to shut down, and let the people they needed to stay open for shots stay open. Zoesha Smith had the best day of her career here at Georgia Tech. Good thing for that because they really made it difficult for us to score anywhere else on the floor.
"I thought our effort was phenomenal defensively. I thought we did a really good job defensively to stop people that we needed to stop. But they had some people really step up in a big way. We had some breakdowns defensively that maybe we could've capitalized on, but offensively it was just a tough day for us. I mean who's going to think that Dani Carnegie is going to shoot the ball like that or it's going to be so hard for people to get shots. But that's Duke defense, and I'll give them credit for that. We've got to do a better job of manufacturing looks for some of our players against strong defensive teams. (Duke) just guarded us really well."
Georgia Tech (17-4, 5-4 in ACC) got off to a solid start in the contest, leading 9-3 early on, then 13-7 and eventually 18-12 before Duke rallied back to within one at 18-17 to end the first quarter.
The Blue Devils (17-4, 7-1 in ACC) had a better second quarter, limiting Georgia Tech to several tough shots in the period and nine points in the quarter overall. Duke was able to work its way to a 31-27 lead as the teams headed to the locker room at the break.
Georgia Tech took back the lead in the third quarter with Dunn scoring eight of her 10 points in the game in the period, but Duke once again had the answer to tie things up at 45-45 going to the fourth.
Duke was led by a trio of players who scored 12 each, including Delaney Thomas, Taina Mair and Oluchi Okananwa. Thomas added eight rebounds. Toby Fournier also had six points for the Devils.
Smith was one bright spot on a tough day for the Jackets as she finished with a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds.
"I feel like she got a little bit over a hump. She's just kind of trying to find her way and really find her confidence," said Fortner. "Today she really stepped up in a big way. She gets that baseline shot a lot, but there is a reason why. They give her that shot. A lot of teams do give her that shot, but today she knocked it down, and that was huge for us. We needed that. It kept us in the game primarily. We were able to stay close and tie them at the end of the third quarter, but we didn't get anything in the fourth quarter. What did we have? We hit two shots. But Zoesha really gave us a lot of confidence today, and that should give her a lot of confidence. And she was all over the boards too so that was good."
The Jackets' junior guard Dunn finished with 10 points on the afternoon as she passed a career milestone with her 1,000th point in the process. She joins teammate Tonie Morgan as Georgia Tech players to surpass 1,000 career points this season.
Morgan and Chit-Chat Wright each scored eight points for Georgia Tech. Morgan added five assists as well.
Georgia Tech will have a few days off before its next action as the team won't take the court again until next Sunday at 2 p.m. when it visits Miami for another ACC matchup. The Jackets' next home game isn't until Thursday, Feb. 6 when it hosts SMU back at McCamish Pavilion.
"Absolutely," Fortner answered in response to only having one game this coming week. "It always works out that way. You've got kids banged up that need the extra rest, that need extra recovery time. So it comes at a good time.
"This will be great to go back and look at for teaching points," Fortner added about Sunday's loss. "Also good for the coaches to go back and look at when we come up against defenses like this, we've got to be able to manufacture some looks. How do we attack this kind of defense? Nobody has come close to defending us like that this year. Not even anywhere near close. That was a clinic. So if we get to see them again, we're going to have to really bear down and figure out how to score against them."
Duke will be on the road again on Thursday when it visits NC State at 7 p.m.