With not a ton of fanfare Josh Pastner signed Jose Alvarado and Moses Wright in his first full recruiting class that was met nationally with a shrug. Pastner added Jordan Usher from USC and Bubba Parham from VMI via transfers home to the metro Atlanta area and that core group of players plus juniors Mike Devoe and Khalid Moore make the core of this Georgia Tech team that knocked off Duke on Tuesday night 81-77 in an overtime thriller on Senior Night for that quartet of players.

That core group was winless against the Blue Devils as was Pastner as a head coach, but they exercised their demons even if was more dramatic than expected. Tech was 0-5 against Duke under Pastner prior to Tuesday and they improved to 14-8 on the season and 10-6 in the ACC while Duke fell to 11-10 (9-8 in the ACC) with the loss. Pastner said his team is a tournament team.

"Georgia Tech deserves to be in the tournament hands down, no brainer. When you look at our numbers, what we've done with the wins that we've had no brainer," Pastner opened his press conference with after the game. "How many times can you say in a single year you beat Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky in the same year? How about this? at Georgia Tech? It's never been done before. Back-to-back years of double-digit ACC wins. First time since 2005."

The five-game winning streak in ACC play with the win is the longest streak since 1995-96 for ACC wins in a row for Tech.

Moses Wright continued to make his case for ACC Player of the Year in what could be his final game ever in McCamish. Wright had 29 points, 14 rebounds including eight offensive boards, three blocks, and five assists.

"It was just phenomenal," Wright said of the McCamish finale. "Just getting the win for all the four-year guys like me, Jose, Malachi (Rice), even just other people who have been on the team, the coaching staff. I haven't beaten Duke. Jose hasn't beaten Duke nobody on our team has. This is our first time beating Duke as a team since I've been here. So it's just great for the program to take down on them. Beating big blue schools, especially Duke since we have beaten them now is a great feeling."

Tech's defense led by Usher and Moore held Duke' candidate for player of the year, Matthew Hurt, to 12 points and four rebounds in 29 minutes before he fouled out late in the second half.

Duke scored first in overtime, but Tech managed to go on a 6-0 run to go up four on a key steal and pass by Usher to Alvarado and an Usher layup. Tech stretched the lead to 7 on Wright free throws, then Duke got back in the game off a DJ Steward three and an Usher turnover, and a free throw. It was a two-point game with two seconds left, Mike Devoe hit a pair of free throws to ice a Tech win 81-77.

Wright said the Jackets focused on their defense in overtime knowing the offense would come.

"We just talked about defense honestly, because we pride ourselves on our defense," Wright said. "We came out, I forget if we had a stop or not, it was like, Yeah, like three kills (three stops in a row). I'm pretty sure I know it goes on because coach Pastner brings it up all the time, but not three in a row. We have to get three kills and nothing else going in overtime. So we're just gonna, like, get two kills and get two more kills in the game is ours. That's what we're focused on. Is that over time, just getting defensive stops the entire time."

Tech held an eight-point lead in regulation after overcoming a five-point deficit early in the second half. The veteran core of the team tied the game up behind big baskets by Devoe and Wright and then took the lead on an Alvarado runner with 10:12 left in the game 52-50. The Jackets stretched that lead to 64-56 on a Moore pull-up jumper with 4:47 left. Tech then went scoreless over the final minutes of the game and Duke went on an 8-0 run to close regulation.

The Jackets had a chance to win it in regulation when Moore picked up a key defensive rebound on a Wendell Moore Jr. missed three. Pastner took a timeout, drew up a play and Alvarado milked the clock, but ended up launching a weird desperation shot with the shot clock running out and six-plus seconds left. Duke got the ball back with a timeout and 6.1 on the clock, Jaemyn Brakefield missed a long three and the game went to overtime.

In the first half, Tech trailed almost by six at the half, a Moses Wright buzzer-beating three cut the Blue Devils lead to just three, a key moment in a very long game. Wright had 11 points in the first half and Wendell Moore Jr. had 17 points. Kyle Sturdivant also had two key three-pointers in the game as well as playing some minutes in a small-ball lineup.

"We came in at halftime coach (Anthony) Wilkins said it best. He was basically like, we all want this win. But it's just everybody's like really anxious is not coming with the energies and not matching each other. So coming out in the second half, we're all just trying to match each other and get everything back into a flow. You saw glimpses over the last four minutes when I was just bringing the ball up the court. I think it was like coming out the media time I was winning the battle of the core philosophy again isn't our office that just really got us going. Just the pace of the offense started off and it just went downhill from there.

Alvarado playing through a hamstring injury over the last two games said Tuesday was emotional for him. After the game, he jumped up on the old scorer's table facing the crowd.

"I don't know what the future holds to me. But just you know, saying this might be my last game here. Man, this, this program took me in when I was a little like, rugrat, just running around trying to find myself. And you know, they believed in me when I didn't believe in myself sometimes. This whole program and this culture stuff in their environment here, man. This is my family. This is my family forever and I love this place with all my heart. I don't know what the future holds for me, but, man, I just can't believe this is my last home game. I was just going out there and just showing those people that they show love to me when I felt I didn't show love. They stood out to me when I didn't feel like I needed love and like I just made them feel like I burned them down sometimes because of my action on the court sometimes, but they just stood by my side and kept holding me accountable for being the best Jose, and I just love them so much."

Alvarado said this Duke win along with other tough wins are showing how dangerous Tech can be in the ACC and NCAA Tournament.

"This is a step towards how good we could be and how great we are going to be," he said. "Duke is a very good team, and they did stuff that made us feel uncomfortable, but we had to adapt and get in a rhythm. That's what our team is doing. Like we just keep each other going. And just try to get better every day."

Adapting his role, Alvarado said that he has embraced letting others shine while he nurses his hamstring because his sole focus is winning big in his final season.

"I could go for one point, my brothers and my teammates and my brothers know that I'm gonna give you all I got. If you really think about it if I'm scoring a lot of points, we're in a bad season because you want Moses Wright, you want Mike, you want those guys that need to score instead of me scoring that means all those guys are not into the game," he said. "We need them to be in the game more than me, like I'm gonna do my part. Like, it's not like in my head is I literally going to court every day. I'm a little bit dive and get every loose ball. I'm gonna be a lockdown defender. Because in my head, obviously I could score the bore, but like that's not a problem, but it's just more about getting those guys going because I can get my I can get myself going. I need those guys to be in the game because you know, we need them to win."

Pastner gave a lot of credit for the win and the season to his players and staff after the game.

"What a great win for our seniors. I mean, just all eight of them. So we got six players to managers are seniors, so proud of them. I thought our guys stepped up to the plate. This was a gritty, gutty, tough, hard-nosed game, from tip to the last shot that that was when the buzzer sounded in overtime. And we just gutted out," he said. "What an unbelievable job by my staff. I have such a great staff in game planning, player development. My support staff is amazing. I mean, just every one of our staff, you know, if I've done anything good, I've hired a good staff. I've had good people since I've been at Georgia Tech. So I and I'm glad I haven't tried to screw it up. So I'm just really proud of our program really proud of our staff."

The Jackets finished the year 8-1 at home with their lone loss coming to a top-ranked Virginia team at the time.

Georgia Tech will aim to close out the season on Friday night at Wake Forest. The Deacs have been scuffling losing six in a row starting with an overtime loss at Florida State. The game will be the first game this season for the Deacs with fans in the building with a 15-percent capacity.