No. 18 Georgia Tech picked the worst time Sunday to have a scoring drought.
The Yellow Jackets managed just one point over the final 5:13 of their matchup with No. 14 Duke in front of 4,301 at McCamish Pavilion and lost 55-50. Tech actually had a two-point lead to start the fourth quarter and was down just 51-49 with 5:13 to go, but the Blue Devils’ defense locked in from there.
Tech (17-4, 5-4 ACC) lost for the fourth time in six games after starting the season 15-0 and was held to its lowest point total of the season.
“Nobody’s come close to defending us like that this year. That was a clinic,” Tech coach Nell Fortner said. “So, if we get to see (Duke) again, we’re gonna have to really bear down and figure out how to score against them.”
Tied at 45-all to begin the fourth quarter Sunday, Duke used a 6-2 spurt to open a modest 51-47 lead 4:20 into the period. At the 4:02 mark, Oluchi Okananwa’s up-and-under layup put the Blue Devils out front 55-49.
The Jackets had no answers. They finished 1 of 20 from 3-point range and turned the ball over 14 times. Tech freshman Dani Carnegie, who came into the contest scoring 15.9 points per game, had just two points on 1 of 13 shooting and turned the ball over four times.
Zoe Smith finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Kara Dunn, who crossed the 1,000-point mark for her career, added 10.
Tech is next at Miami (12-8, 2-7) at 2 p.m. on Feb. 2
“I think that Duke is maybe, probably, the best defensive team in the country. They absolutely played phenomenal defense, and they did exactly what they needed to do to beat us,” Fortner added. “They shut down the people they needed to shut down, they let the people they needed to stay open for shots stay open.”
Tech had a 9-3 lead a little more than four minutes into the game as Duke missed eight of its first nine shots. But the Jackets’ got a little tight toward the end of the period and went the final 2:25 without scoring as Duke ended the quarter on a 7-2 run to close within 18-17.
Tech’s drought would bleed into the second quarter and end up lasting 5:13. Smith’s putback with 7:12 on the clock got the Jackets back within 23-20 after they had been trailing by five.
Smith’s baseline jumper midway through the period tied the score at 25-all. Duke, however, wouldn’t surrender the lead and ended the frame on a little 6-2 spurt to take a 31-27 lead at the break.
Tech missed nine of its 10 3-point attempts in the first half. Dunn was held to a single point and Carnegie was scoreless over the first two quarters.
“Coming into this game, we knew that Duke was a really good defensive team,” Smith said. “I feel like we had the right game plan coming into this game. Tonight just wasn’t our night offensively. Not every team has a wonderful night every night. Shots wasn’t falling. We’re gonna get back in the gym and work on that.”
Dunn came out in the third quarter determined to impact the game in the scoring column and poured in eight points in the period’s first five minutes. The Jackets still found themselves down 41-37 on Delaney Thomas’ putback with 4:22 on the clock and down 43-39 1 1/2-minutes later.
But Tech got four straight from Smith to tie the score at 45-45 ahead of the fourth quarter, setting up the decisive and final 10 minutes.
Duke (17-4, 8-1 ACC) got 12 points from Thomas, Okananwa and Taina Mair each in its fifth straight victory. The Blue Devils as a team held Tech to 33.3% shooting.
“Just make sure every look was contested was our goal. They have such a high-powered offense. We knew that that would be a Herculean task to do so,” Duke coach Kara Lawson said. “They’ve got shooters everywhere and really good guard play. We were trying to just challenge everything and just hope that we could push their efficiency a little bit lower than what’s normal for them. Our defense just stood really tall, especially late.”
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