Duke 65-61 FINAL: Your 2010 ACC Tournament champions: the Duke Blue Devils. Check back here and at dukechronicle.com for postgame.
Duke 63-59 SECOND HALF 18 seconds remaining: Miller's three hit all kinds of rim for Georgia Tech and Favors slammed it home to pull within one. But never count out Jon Scheyer. The senior captain just drained his second three of the game--on eight attempts, no less--to get the two-possession lead.
Duke 60-57 SECOND HALF 1:26 remaining: The Yellow Jackets are keeping things interesting, but do they have enough fight left in them? The Blue Devils have led the entire game and Georgia Tech is out of timeouts.
Duke is struggling just enough on offense to keep this game exciting. The team has only field goal in the last five minutes--Plumlee's dunk.
Duke 56-48 SECOND HALF 3:37 remaining: The Blue Devils are already in stall offense, but Mason Plumlee just bailed out the team with a thunderous dunk on the last possession with the shot clock expiring. Don't count out Tech just yet, though. They're pressing relatively effectively, and have some long-range threats to keep things close.
Duke 54-43, SECOND HALF 5:20 remaining: Maurice Miller just prevented Nolan Smith from finishing what would have been a highlight-reel dunk on the break and flushed down one of his own, but Scheyer finally connected from beyond the arc, and this crowd couldn't be more thrilled. This might be the loudest it's been all day.
Duke 47-38, SECOND HALF 8:37 remaining: Even when he's shooting 2-for-10, there's one thing Jon Scheyer can do, and that's draw fouls from beyond the arc. Scheyer drained three free throws after being fouled by Brian Oliver to push the lead back to seven. Nevertheless, the senior still looks really worn out today.
Singler, meanwhile, is still all over the place, but he's making his free throws as Duke builds its lead.
Oh, and another fun sign: "NCAA Tourney dress code: No heels"
Duke 38-33, SECOND HALF 12:15 remaining: Georgia Tech's trapping is really frustrating the Blue Devils, who just called timeout with 26 seconds on the shot clock to give themselves 10 more seconds to get the ball past half court. The Yellow Jackets just lost Glen Rice Jr. to an ankle injury, but they haven't missed a beat. Freshman phenom Derrick Favors has 13 points for the Jackets.
Singler has three fouls for Duke, but he is staying in the game, a testament to how much the Blue Devils need him on offense, even though he is shooting 3-of-14.
Duke 35-30, SECOND HALF 13:18 remaining: It's hard to believe Duke was ever outshooting Georgia Tech, given that Singler and Scheyer are a combined 4-of-20 from the field. The Blue Devils are so desperate for offense that Dawkins is back in the game in place of Scheyer, and the freshman just drew a blocking foul on Zachery Peacock.
Duke 33-26, SECOND HALF 15:51 remaining: Scheyer is really not feeling it today, not even from the foul line. He is shooting 2-of-7 from the field, including 0-for-3 from beyond the arc--on some pretty open looks, too. It's a good thing Duke's defense is so solid, as Lance Thomas just proved by forcing another Tech turnover, because Smith is the only one getting it done on the offensive end. Singler is working his tail off, but the shots aren't falling for him.
Duke 29-22, END OF FIRST HALF: Singler nailed a short jumper to give Duke a seven-point lead heading into the half, and the ESPN crew is still fixing the wreckage that he caused when he dove out of bounds. The Blue Devils might have had a chance to add to their lead, but Dawkins dribbled the ball out of bounds on the final play of the half.
Georgia Tech is starting to figure out a rhythm on offense, and is exploiting its advantage in the paint. The two teams each have 17 rebounds, but Duke has built its lead on superior shooting--not exactly the hallmark of this team. The Blue Devils are shooting 41.4 percent from the field to the Yellow Jackets' 34.8 percent. Smith leads all scorers with 11 points despite playing only 10 minutes due to foul trouble. Zoubek and Singler have seven and six boards apiece.
Duke 26-20, FIRST HALF 1:18 remaining: Singler just took out Dan Shulman and Dick Vitale while trying to save the ball, and appears to have hit himself and the two announcers pretty hard. Shulman even lost his headset in the collision. Head coach Mike Krzyzewski called a timeout to regroup, but Duke will need more than that to rescue its currently stagnant offense.
Duke 26-15, FIRST HALF 3:53 remaining: Duke fans love their youngest Blue Devil. Andre Dawkins got this place roaring with a corner three, but he's outdone himself with a thunderous slam that forced Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt to call timeout. Dawkins is getting extended playing time again with Smith in foul trouble, but today, the freshman is making full use of it.
Here's an interesting feature on Dawkins' journey this year at Duke.
Duke 19-14, FIRST HALF 7:58 remaining: Ugly stretch for Duke. Georgia Tech has done a good job of attacking the Blue Devils, especially in the paint, and the Yellow Jackets have also tightened up their defense. Kyle Singler is getting good looks off of curls and screens, but he is only 1-of-5 from the field after a monster showing against the Hurricanes.
Duke 17-8, FIRST HALF 11:33 remaining: So much for worrying about Scheyer--he looked just fine driving into the paint for the easy floater to put Duke up nine. Smith already has 11 points, just one less than he scored against Miami yesterday, and is beating the Yellow Jackets himself. Maurice Miller is the lone source of offense for Georgia Tech. He's nailed two long threes to keep his team afloat, but the Blue Devils will settle for those looks if it means the Yellow Jacket big men don't get the ball inside.
Duke 10-2, FIRST HALF 14:21 remaining: At this point, the only thing that could potentially stop Nolan Smith is foul trouble. The junior already has eight points and is scoring in a variety of ways, but has picked up a blocking foul and was saddled with foul trouble in the first half of yesterday's contest.
The only thing that might concern Duke right now would be Jon Scheyer. He looks to have lost some of his bounce on offense, getting stuffed on a layup and missing a wide-open three from the corner. He hasn't shot particularly well the past two games, so let's see if he can bounce back today.
Duke 6-0, FIRST HALF 17:34 remaining: Beautiful start for the Blue Devils. First, a nice two-man game from Singler and Smith leads to a jumper in the lane. Then, Scheyer--active as always in the passing lanes--gets an easy layup off a steal. And Nolan Smith finishes it off with another bucket in transition. The defense is solid as usual for duke.
PREGAME: We're live from the Greensboro Coliseum for the ACC Tournament final between No. 1 Duke and No. 7 Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets are the highest seed the Blue Devils have faced this far, and Georgia Tech beat North Carolina, Maryland and N.C. State to advance to today.
It's a decidedly pro-Duke crowd here today and a pretty packed house too. This will essentially be a road game for the Yellow Jackets, as if the odds weren't already against them. Sign of the day so far: "Thank you Carolina and Maryland 4 my ticket!"
Duke Starters:
F Kyle Singler
F Lance Thomas
C Brian Zoubek
G Nolan Smith
G Jon Scheyer
Georgia Tech Starters:
F Derrick Favors
F Gani Lawal
G D'Andre Bell
G Glen Rice Jr.
G Iman Shumpert
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