ATLANTA – Duke’s locker room was deathly silent in the wake of the team’s first conference loss—so quiet that the celebratory screams of Georgia Tech’s players were faintly audible through the thin walls in the lower levels of the Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
That sound might imply that only a thin margin kept Duke from victory Saturday, but the Yellow Jackets’ tenacity and the stellar play of sophomore post Gani Lawal put more than enough distance between the two teams Saturday afternoon as Georgia Tech sprung a 71-67 upset win over Duke.
No. 20 Georgia Tech (12-3, 1-1 in the ACC) overcame a 20-12 rebounding deficit in the first half by outrebounding No. 5 Duke (13-1, 1-1) by a 26-12 margin over the final 20 minutes, snaring numerous critical boards on both the offensive and defensive glass during the game’s closing minutes. And with a team-high nine of those rebounds, Lawal led the Ramblin’ Wreck’s second-half surge by pouring in 14 points during the final period, including a turnaround jumper that gave Georgia Tech a crucial two-score edge with 1:02 left in the game.
“It just seemed like we couldn’t come up with balls—they were quicker to them,” guard Jon Scheyer said. “It’s just about making plays down the stretch, whether it’s shots or rebounds. They made them and we didn’t.”
The Blue Devils turned in an abysmal shooting performance and hit on only six of their 28 3-point attempts, yet still had a chance to win or force overtime in the game’s final seconds. After Lawal’s basket left Duke down 64-60 with 1:02 to go, forward Kyle Singler missed on a 3-point attempt that was rebounded by the Yellow Jackets. But instead of going for quick foul, the Blue Devils were able to catch guard Iman Shumpert in a backcourt trap, forcing a turnover that led to a quick Miles Plumlee dunk and a 64-62 score with 35 ticks left on the clock. Duke was unable to conjure up any more magic from its backcourt press, however, and Georgia Tech finished the final half-minute of the game a perfect 7-for-7 from the free-throw line to seal the upset win, sending students spilling onto Cremins Court in celebration at the final buzzer.
“They played 40 minutes, so there was a never a letup by them,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
For as hot as Duke’s scoring trio of Scheyer, Singler and Nolan Smith had been over the past few games, all three seemed to hit a wall offensively Saturday. Scheyer led all scorers with 25 points but it took him 19 shots from the floor to reach that number, and he shot only 2-for-13 from outside the 3-point arc. Smith and Singler also struggled to find a comfort zone on offence, as both scratched out nine points. Singler’s shooting day was particularly rough, with the junior hitting on only 2 of his 13 shots all afternoon.
“We win and lose together…[but] Kyle just didn’t have the game that we would like him to have,” Krzyzewski said. “He had the game that Georgia Tech would like him to have.”
And as the misses mounted for the Blue Devils’ big three in the second, their defensive focus also lapsed. Both Scheyer and Smith conceded after the game that that their offensive troubles had a corresponding negative impact on their defensive focus, effectively allowing the Yellow Jackets to hustle their way to an upset win.
“It hurts, but we’ve got to know games like that are going to happen and we can’t let that affect our defense,” Smith said. “They were missing shots, and they had lot of tipped dunks, different plays down the stretch that we normally have that could have changed the game in our favor.”
Saturday’s loss draws Duke even in the ACC but also underscores a key question to consider as the team ventures into the heart of conference play—is Duke able to close out a win on the road? Duke dropped to 0-2 in true road games this season with the loss, and with both the Georgia Tech and Wisconsin defeats finalized only after the Blue Devils squandered late opportunities to take decisive leads, Scheyer fully understands that making a strong statement is an absolute imperative in Duke’s next trip away from Durham, a Jan. 20 showdown with N.C. State.
“It’s disappointing because we knew we really wanted to come out and prove on the road that we could win a game, because the only other real road game we had we lost,” Scheyer said. “Next time we’re on the road—I don’t know who it is—but we need to come out and send a message that we can win on the road.”
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