The Yellow Jackets played to the level of their competition early in their 70-56 defeat to No. 2 Duke. They were doing all the things that the game plan calls for when facing the Blue Devils.
Tech rotated well initially on defense, meeting every outside shot attempt. They crashed the boards hard and fast, a stat that the final box score will indicate to a certain degree. Gani Lawal had a game-high 17 rebounds, including nine in the first half. The Yellow Jackets were feeding off their crowd and riding the wave to an early 15-8 lead. Much of Tech’s early effort was powered by the play of freshman guard Iman Shumpert, who had seven of his nine points in those initial minutes.
Viewers of Duke’s basketball team, which thanks to ESPN is most us, knew that a run was coming. However, Duke’s run was more of steady stream than a raging river. The Blue Devils moved the ball well in the second part of the first half and thanks to two 3-pointers by Greg Paulus and the steady play of Duke’s co-leading scorer Kyle Singler (19 points, 14 rebounds), they were able to climb back into the game. Duke’s effort culminated in a 15-3 run to end the first half and a 31-28 lead.
Duke’s rush towards victory was slow in the second half as well as the Blue Devils were 2-for-6 from the field to start the second half. Unfortunately, Tech was unable to take advantage of Duke’s poor shooting, going 2-for-5 during the same stretch. Duke’s defensive effort remained strong and the Yellow Jackets seemed to erode under the pressure. “In the first half, I thought we did a good job. In the second half, we took the bait. They put those big guys on our perimeters and they started dribbling around too much and put up some tough shots,” said coach Paul Hewitt.
Along with Singler’s ability to edge out Tech’s big men in the second half, Gerald Henderson emerged as a scoring threat. The Yellow Jackets had few answers for Henderson’s ability to drive past defenders and hit tough shots when pressure was applied. The Duke guard finished the game with 19 points, including 12 decisive points in the second half. “In the second half we got lost in the shuffle and let their shooters get hot,” said Lawal.
With less than 10 minutes remaining, Duke used an 11-3 run to push their lead to 57-44, all but sealing Tech’s third straight ACC defeat.
While Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski praised the Jackets for being a “good team,” Tech players spoke about tonight’s play with a sense of regret for what could have happened if they kept their early lead tonight, and a sense of urgency for what’s looking like a critical game against N.C. State on Saturday. “We are 0-3 in the league and definitely want to get our first ACC win so we can get our confidence back,” said Lawal.
Crosskey can be reached at jcrosskey@scoreatl.com.
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