The Blue Devil's headband read "ACC: every game is a battle," and in the case of the men's basketball team's seemingly easy 70-61 win over Georgia Tech (8-11, 2-7 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Sunday, the statement was certainly accurate.
"We won a heck of a game today," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said, "Georgia Tech just played us so tough. It says a lot for our league. They come in 2-6 and they played winning basketball this afternoon. It took a heck of an effort from our kids to win today."
Despite an opening dunk from senior Greg Newton, both teams started slow. The teams exchanged leads six times in the first six and a half minutes of play, but following a three-pointer by junior Ricky Price, which bobbled around the rim before finally falling, the Blue Devils took a lead that they would not relinquish for the remainder of the game. Price's shot was the start of a 12-0 Duke run that put the Blue Devils up 19-8 with nine minutes left in the half.
The first half also contained a series of mini-runs by individual Duke players. Senior Jeff Capel scored seven of the team's first 12 points, sophomore guard Trajan Langdon reeled off eight straight points in the middle of the half, and junior Roshown McLeod scored the final five points of the half. Price came off the bench to contribute seven for the Blue Devils in the first stanza.
"We don't have that one superstar, but we have a lot of good players," Krzyzewski said. "To have a chance to win, everyone needs to play well."
Perhaps most impressive, however, was Duke's defense in the first 20 minutes of play. Junior Matt Harpring, who is second in the
"On defense, [Duke] pressured the ball hard," Harpring said. "It seemed like everywhere I went in the first half, there was some guy there. They just really picked up their defense, and when you get down 10-15 points, it's really hard to come back against them."
After the half, Georgia Tech appeared to pick up its sluggish pace by scoring four straight points to close the gap to seven, but it was as close as it would get.
"I got a little excited when [junior Michael Maddox] hit the three to start the second half-I thought maybe we could get something going, but we continue to have problems running our offense," Yellow Jacket coach Bobby Cremins said.
Tech's offense did get better-it nearly doubled its first-half shooting by managing to hit 56.0 percent of their shots-but it paled in comparison to the Blue Devils' 64.7 second-half percentage. Harpring revived his cold shooting touch from the first half to score 16 points, including 4-of-5 from three-point range, and sophomore guard Gary Saunders scored 11 in the second half. But, the final score was somewhat deceiving after Saunders scored the Yellow Jackets' final eight points on four unanswered buckets in the final 44 seconds to cut a 14-point Duke lead to nine.
The Blue Devils were able to keep Elisma in check for the remainder of the game, however. He could only manage nine points before fouling out in the final minute.
"McLeod went one-on-one with Eddie and he got him," Cremins said.
Elisma, the conference's leading offensive rebounder, was able to pull down nine boards to lead his team, but the Jackets were often unable to convert on the second chances.
"We wanted to keep him off the boards and that was something that I think we did a pretty good job of," McLeod said. "We just wanted to make it hard for them to get second opportunities because that's the way they score. They didn't have a lot of opportunities tonight until the end of the game, but by that time, the game was over."
Both McLeod and Langdon finished with 17 points, while Price added 14, including a flamboyant reverse slam dunk in the final 30 seconds. Junior Steve Wojciechowski dished out nine assists, while Capel contributed nine points and five assists to the Blue Devils' win.
"I see something special about this team," Cremins said. "I know they might lack some of the superstars they might have had in the past, but they play so hard and they play so well together."
With the win, Duke (17-5, 6-3 in the ACC) moves into a three-way tie with Maryland and Clemson for second place in the conference.
"I think a lot of people thought we would have had an emotional letdown after the Carolina game, but that was our driving force, that's what we were thinking about-if we win this one we put ourselves in the position where we're in second place, and that's a place that none of the younger guys have experienced since they've been here," Capel said.
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