Quick start propels Duke basketball to 68-51 victory against Georgia Tech
Freshman Jabari Parker recorded his ninth double-double of the year against the Yellow Jackets as Duke cruised to a 68-51 win.
"We didn't want to take them lightly, especially on the
road," said Hood, who finished with 14 points. "We didn’t want to come out and pace ourselves. We wanted to come out and
try and dominate from the tip. I think we did that for the most part, I think
the beginning of the second half we let up a little bit. We just played great
defense the whole game."
On the defensive end, the Blue Devils put aggressive ball pressure on Georgia Tech's guards, playing lockdown perimeter defense that head coach Mike Krzyzewski called "the best it's been all year." Duke limited the Yellow Jackets (13-13, 4-9) to 27 first-half points and forced five turnovers that turned into 10 Blue Devil points.
"I think our guards did a great job of pressuring and
contesting, and [the Yellow Jackets] weren’t able to get into a rhythm on the offensive end," Duke senior Tyler Thornton said. "[We] just made it tough trying to go one-on-one a lot."
By getting the Yellow Jackets out of sync and pushing their guards back toward midcourt, the Blue Devils disrupted Georgia Tech's inside game as well. Center Daniel Miller was held to two points on 1-of-4 shooting, well below his season clip of 11.4 points per game.
"We thought our ball pressure and contesting
was going to be a key to the ball game, and it would make it harder, make the
passes longer and the vision tougher to see the post," Krzyzewski said. "That helped our big guys." The Yellow Jackets were also stretched thin at the ball-handling positions. Senior guard Trae Golden, Georgia Tech's leading scorer at 13.4 points per game, did not start because of a nagging groin injury. He played 14 minutes in the first half but saw just three more minutes on the court after the break and finished with just two points.
After the break, the Blue Devils made a concerted effort to dump the ball inside to freshman Jabari Parker, who finished the game with 16 points and 14 rebounds for his ninth double-double of the season. As a team, Duke could not continue its shooting streak through the second frame, making just 7-of-24 field goals.
"You respect every game," Krzyzewski said. "If you’re only going to do well on a
Saturday night show on Broadway, your show’s not going to last very long. You’ve
got the Wednesday matinee, the Friday, the Thursday. You have to do your best."
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