Devils subdue feisty Jackets

MATT WINKELJOHN

MCT (ENLARGE)

Duke's Brian Zoubek, left, and Kyle Singler, right, guard Georgia Tech's Jeremis Smith, bottom, during the first half at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Wednesday.

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

mwinkeljohn@ajc.com

Durham, N.C. — Georgia Tech's loss Wednesday night was not especially instructive if you were looking for information about the Yellow Jackets, and not so much was there to learn about Duke, either.

The outcome itself, a 71-58 victory for the Blue Devils was no surprise, and Tech's loss did not move the Jackets from ninth place in the ACC. It did help Duke (24-3, 11-2 ACC) re-tie North Carolina for first place.

Tech had only two double-digit scorers as Gani Lawal scored 10 points inside, and Matt Causey scored 10 outside, eight before sustaining a grade-two concussion on the final play of the first half.

This game made obvious that Tech (11-15, 4-8) has not surrendered in a five-game losing streak, as the Jackets brought their hard hats, and played aggressively yet again in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

But their lack of balance in areas other than scoring was costly.

And if Tech fans didn't already know, they saw in a nationally-televised game that their team has a habit of correcting problems, but, unfortunately, taking on others.

Tech was outrebounded by 15 in Saturday's loss at Virginia Tech but grabbed two more than Duke on Wednesday, and had six players with five or more.

Problem was, although the Jackets grabbed 17 offensive rebounds, they converted them into a mere nine second-chance points. That and the fact the ACC's most larcenous team forced Tech into 20 turnovers (including a whopping 14 Duke steals) doomed the Jackets.

"They've done a great job all year turning people over, and particularly getting steals," Tech coach Paul Hewitt said after his point guards combined for 10 (Moe Miller had six, Causey four). "I felt our guys worked extremely hard, and we had a lot of looks around the rim. You've got to stick those back. [The Blue Devils] were contesting them hard, but still, maybe we were a little anxious."

This game might not have been especially instructive for the Jackets, or even Duke other than to illustrate that the ACC's most prolific 3-point shooting team can be forced into a horrid night from beyond the arc (the Blue Devils made two of 15) and still win by spreading itself out, thieving, and taking freebies.

Most trips to Cameron Indoor Stadium shine a light on something, and Wednesday the most stark lesson was that no team can expect uniformity in officiating from one ACC game to the next.

In the Jackets' previous game, they and Virginia Tech combined for a whopping 83 free throws and 60 free throws. There was no significant disparity in the way the whistles were blown at each team.

But by the time Tech attempted its first free throw Wednesday, with 9:34 left in the game, Duke had attempted 18. The Blue Devils were not called for their first foul in the second half until there was 13:21 left.

The Blue Devils led 33-27 at halftime after making one of 11 3-pointers, but eight of nine free throws to Tech's none.

This game was noticeably more rough-and-tumble than the one against Virginia Tech, yet the whistle blew 20 fewer times, and there were 42 fewer free throws taken.

That didn't help Tech, which made seven of 11 free throws to Duke's 21 of 30.

"It was a lot more physical down low; the refs us play," Lawal said. "It was definitely more physical than the last game."

Hewitt said, "It's not something I think about. I try to control the things that we can control."

The Jackets couldn't keep Duke from picking off balls.

The Blue Devils double-teamed the Jackets' ball-handler frequently, freshman Kyle Singler registering four steals on the way to 13 points, and Gerald Henderson and DeMarcus Nelson played sticky defense and scored 15 each.

"They take away the first pass," said Causey, who was run over by Duke freshman Greg Paulus on the last play of the first half (no foul called), hitting his head on the floor as he went down. "They pressure the ball, and take away all the [passing lanes]."