CHARLOTTE, NC- Georgia Tech gave #1 Duke a scare with a strong first-half performance, but after Blue Devils superstar Cooper Flagg went down with an injury, Duke went on a 20-5 run to retake the lead and cruised to a 78-70 win over the Jackets.
Second-year Tech head coach Damon Stoudamire said he was proud of how his team kept fighting the second half of the season and against Duke as well on Thursday.
“Proud of my guys. I thought we played hard. We fought through a lot of things all season long. We've had a lot of injuries and different things. It's part of it. It happens,” he said. “But they never made excuses, and I'm happy and proud to have coached them based on that. They fought, they fought, they fought, they fought, and just proud of them.
Today's game, I thought the last four minutes from probably the first four minutes of the second half, the game got away from us a little bit, and when I say that, Duke is a team of runs. I thought they did a good job overall collectively in the game withstanding those runs, but those two runs hurt us. We just couldn't weather the storm.”
Tech made several runs in the second half but starting the second half without a basket or free throw for the first 5:11 allowed Duke to pull ahead by seven and the Jackets could not pick up a second-half lead after Duke took the lead with 16:56 left in the game.
Wing Duncan Powell led the way for Tech with 24 points on 6-14 shooting from three and six rebounds playing all 40 minutes.
Powell kept the Jackets in the game with his shooting put it simply that Tech didn’t respond well enough when Duke went on a 14-0 run to end the first half into the first five minutes of the second half.
“I mean, they were just hitting shots. It's basketball. We started off -- I don't even remember what the run was, but it's basketball. It's a game of runs, so sometimes they're going to get a high. We may miss assignments, this or that may happen, but that's really all it was, just basketball at the end of the day,” Powell said.
Big man Baye Ndongo fell short of a double-double with 15 points and seven rebounds along with two blocked shots and a steal in 35 minutes of action.
Senior guard Lance Terry scored 12 points in what could be his final game as a Yellow Jacket on 5-11 shooting and 2-4 from three. He played all 40 minutes. He wanted to beat Duke and wasn’t taking any satisfaction from putting a scare in the Blue Devils.
“I don't really take any satisfaction when it comes to losing, regardless if it was the last game or not, regardless if Duke was the No. 1 team or not. There's no real satisfaction there with going out with a loss.
But I'm happy that we did fight, and we brought a lot of effort tonight,” Terry said.
Point guard Naithan George coming off a near triple-double against Virginia was more human going 3-12 from the field with eight points, seven assists on three turnovers and a steal playing all 40 minutes.
Tech had 14 assists and 11 turnovers on 26 made field goals shooting 42.6 from the field for the game.
The Jackets did not have an answer for Khaman Maluach who was 6-8 with 14 points and nine rebounds, four offensive boards and Duke won the points in the paints 40-26 over the Jackets. Maluach had four blocked shots and altered several other shots at the rim.
Kon Knueppel scored 28 points to lead the Blue Devils with 12 of them coming on 13 free throw attempts. He was 2-6 from three.
Isaiah Evans was the equalizer for the Jackets offense hitting several clutch threes on 4-8 shooting from the arc as he had 14 points.
ACC Player of the Year Flagg left in the first half with an injury after playing just 15 minutes and Tech held him 1-7 shooting and four rebounds.
Duke shot 23.3 percent from three, 7-30.
The loss likely ended Tech’s 2024-25 season at 17-16 on Thursday afternoon in the Spectrum Center. Tech finished above .500 for the first time since the 2020-21 season when they won the ACC Tournament.
Georgia Tech took a 31-26 lead to the half and led by as much as 14 before the break thanks to strong three-point shooting by Duncan Powell who had nine points on three threes. Cooper Flagg left in the first half with an ankle injury and Duke clawed back with points in the paint and a pair of threes by Evans to make it a five-point game after starting 0-13 from three. Flagg and Maliq Brown both did not return from first half injuries for the Blue Devils.
Georgia Tech pushed ahead early taking a 10-6 lead thanks to a Powell three and a couple of buckets by Ndongo in the paint at the first media timeout with 14:36 left in the half. Tech hit four-straight baskets to pull ahead 16-8 at the second media timeout thanks to another Powell three. Darrion Sutton hit his first three of the season to put the Jackets up 19-8 early. The Jackets maintained that lead 23-12 at the U-8 timeout with 7:38 left in the half. Tech extended the lead to 14, 26-12 on a Ndongo putback with 4:58 remaining in the half. Evans snapped an 0-13 start from three by Duke to cut the Tech lead to nine with 3:13 left. George ended the run with a stepback three. Duke hits three straight baskets and a free throw to cut Tech’s lead to five, 31-26. After another non-call on a foul around the rim, Duke had the ball with 18 seconds left in the half but missed the shot leaving the Jackets up 31-26 at the break.
Knueppel hit a three to cut Tech’s lead to two early in the second half. Maluach tied the game with a pair of free throws at 31 with just under 18 minutes left. Duke took a three-point lead on a Silas James three 34-31. Duke capped the 10-0 run with a putback by Maluach leading to a Tech timeout with 15:51 left in the game. Proctor extended the run to 12-0 on a dunk, 38-31 before Mustaf hit a runner to end the run 38-33. Knueppel pushed the Duke lead to eight on a three leading to another Tech timeout with 11:03 left in the half, 48-40. Souare left the game with 10:22 left after getting elbowed to the head on a play where he was called for a foul. Duke pushed the lead to 54-43 at the U-8 timeout after Ndongo missed a dunk and Evans hit his fourth three. Powell hit another three with 4:13 left to pull GT within eight, 63-55, but Maluach dunked in a rebound to push it back to 10, 65-55 with 3:42 left in the game. George hit a three to pull the Jackets within seven 65-58 with 2:41 left in the game. Sutton hit his second three of the game to pull the Jackets within six, 67-61 with 1:27 left in the game. After a pair of Duke free throws George turned the ball over leading to a Maluach dunk to push Duke’s lead back to 10 with under a minute left in the game, 71-61. Terry hit a three with 37.3 left to make it 71-64 and Stoudamire used his final timeout. Ndongo’s dunk with 16 seconds left made it 74-68 after Knueppel hit one of two free throws. Knueppel added two more free throws with 14.2 left to push it back to eight. Powell hit a layup to make it 76-70 with 6.7 left.
