Georgia Tech was overpowered and outmatched Saturday at McCamish Pavilion in a 82-56 loss to No. 5 Duke.
The Yellow Jackets trailed only 43-39 less than 40 seconds into the second half, then scored just seven points in the next 10 minutes as Duke dunked and drained shots en route to the blowout win. The loss was Tech’s sixth in six tries this season against major conference opponents as it fell to 5-7 and 0-2 in ACC play.
“We gave it a fight that first half, thought we did some good things to get back into the game, but the biggest thing is we fought. The second half we didn’t do a lot of the same things. It started with the fight. We just gotta be better in that area,” Tech coach Damon Stoudamire said. “Yes, Duke will have you look that way. They’re No. 5 in the country for a reason and they’re a really good team.”
The Blue Devils (10-2, 2-0 ACC) shot 51.6% for the game, made 10 3-point shots and six dunks. Kon Knueppel scored 18, Khaman Maluach finished with 15 to along with eight boards, Cooper Flagg, on his 18th birthday, added 13 and Tyrese Proctor had 10.
Tech got 13 points from Duncan Powell and 14 from Baye Ndongo, but that duo managed just four of those points in the second half. Tech’s guards Nait George, Lance Terry, Jaeden Mustaf and Javian McCollum were a combined 9-for-31 from the floor for 31 points.
“We gotta take it as one game, to the best of my ability, take it as one game and move on from there,” Stoudamire added. “The biggest take that I could have from today’s game is there might be some other good teams in the league, but I don’t know if they’ll be another team that we’ll play that’s as good as Duke.”
Duke was scorching the nets in the early goings and at one point made seven consecutive shots to take a 25-11 lead a little more than eight minutes into the contest. That was part of a 9-for-12 shooting start for the visitors.
Sion James’ jumper at the 9:38 mark put the Blue Devils ahead 29-15 and a Flagg 3 from the left corner five minutes later made it 37-22. Tech struggled mightily to get its offense going until the waning moments of the half.
Mustaf’s 3 from the top of the key set off a string of five buckets in a row for Tech. Terry finished the flurry with a leaner in the paint and got Tech within 41-36 going into the break.
Duke shot 62.5% from the field in the first 20 minutes but missed four free throws and turned the ball over six times. Powell and Ndongo combined for 23 points, and the Jackets scored 22 of their 36 points from inside the paint.
Tech couldn’t sustain that momentum in the least, however. Even after Terry’s 3 from the right corner cut the score to 43-39, Duke scored 12 straight and built a 55-39 lead after Flagg’s uncontested jumper from the right elbow and Maluach’s dunk with 15:16 to go.
Flagg upped the run to 14-0 with a soaring, right-handed slam making the score 57-39 as the clock ticked past 14:00.
“Basketball’s a game of runs. Sometimes you come out, you’ll be cold, but we gotta come with more intensity on defense, really,” Powell said. “That’s the main thing. Defense helps our offense, so I feel like if we would have sat down more, put a little more heart into our defense, it would have stopped the bleeding on offense because that’s how we play.”
Tech, missing seniors Luke O’Brien (toe) and Kowacie Reeves (foot), as well as Doryan Onwuchekwa (personal reasons), missed 11 consecutive shots during the second-half dry spell and went scoreless for six minutes. Duke, as a national title contender should, took full advantage and left the Jackets hopeless for any sort of comeback.
“Proud of our team today, especially our response in the second half. Georgia Tech, I thought they played, just, a really good game in the first half and, especially, they were hurting us in the paint,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “You know, look, they’re clearly not healthy. That’s hurt them with, just the rotations and continuity. So we understand we played a team that wasn’t at full strength. But, still, you have to show up. And anything can happen.”
Tech is off until it hosts Alabama A&M (4-7) at 2 p.m. Dec. 28.
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