ATLANTA - Three checks equals silence.
That was the medieval disciplinary policy of the Catholic middle school I attended, and it was how the streaking men's team dealt with Georgia Tech's raucous fans en route to a 77-58 win.
The way my ungodly strict middle school worked was if you talked or mis-behaved for any reason, a teacher would put a check by your name on the class clipboard. If a student received three checks in any five day interval, he or she could not speak during school hours except to ask questions to instructors during class time.
Although the Atlanta rush hour traffic and rain led to a late arriving crowd, the Yellow Jacket fans were anything but silent after an Ed Nelson layup gave Georgia Tech an 11-10 lead with 11:50 remaining in the first half.
Check one.
Upping the ante on its defensive pressure, the Blue Devils created a 12-2 run from three forced turnovers, highlighted by a Dahntay Jones fast break dunk that seemed effortless and difficult at the same time.
"When you play these guys, you can't turn the ball over," Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt said. "That spurt they had in the middle of the first half really put us back on our heels. It was a case of us not being strong with the ball."
The crowd lost its frenzied pitch as Duke's lead climbed to 22-13, but Georgia Tech refused to let the building's decibel level affect its play. Quietly pushing the score to 22-17 after shots from B.J. Elder and Chris Bosh, the crowd was once again ignited after a dunk by Bosh impressed nearly everyone in the building.
Check two.
While under most circumstances a play such as Bosh's would spur the home team to a lopsided run, Duke instead used the energy to fuel a10-0 run of its own. J.J. Redick sparked this streak, knocking down two of his game-high six trifectas and adding an assist to another Jones slam to give the Blue Devils a 33-19 lead with 3:37 left in the opening half.
"I think [Redick's] assists made the threes even better," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "He was a really good player tonight."
After playing nearly even with Duke for the rest of the half, Georgia Tech walked into the second half trailing 41-26, but it still had the confidence of its crowd as the building's noise level seemed to give the sense that the half was going to be Tech's.
Check three, you're on silence.
After the half opened with monster slams from Casey Sanders and Shelden Williams, respectively, the Yellow Jackets would never see a Blue Devil lead less than 15 and the crowd's mood was taciturn at best.
While Tech could not throw a beach ball in the ocean at points, Duke could just not stop scoring. Daniel Ewing led the way with 13 second-half points including a monstrous slam with 5:32 left that even had Krzyzewski dropping his jaw.
"Our kids made some big plays where you had to go 'Whoa,'" Krzyzewski said.
After Ewing's slam, the crowd went from silent to absent as most of the fans headed for the exits with five minutes remaining in the game.
"Tonight we were able to keep the crowd out of it," Krzyzewski said.
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