Watching from the bench, Georgia Tech guard Glen Rice Jr. had his doubts as Jason Morris lifted off the floor to corral an alley-oop pass sent from just past midcourt.
“I was like, Oooh, that’s a little high,” Rice said. “Jason, being the high flyer he is, went up there and got it, slammed it. That was nice.”
In the same way, the Yellow Jackets offered more than expected against No. 5 Duke on Saturday afternoon at Philips Arena in the ACC opener for both teams. On the heels of three consecutive uninspiring losses, Tech pushed the Blue Devils to the brink before succumbing 81-74. While they never led, the Jackets rallied from an 18-point deficit in the first half and had an opportunity to tie the game on free throws with 2:58 to go. For a team with a new coach picked to finish 10th in the league, it was a promising beginning.
“I knew that we would get a great effort from their team,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
In his first ACC game, coach Brian Gregory did not accept a moral victory, but acknowledged that “there’s steps that we need to take as a program, where this is the way we play night in and night out.”
Gregory’s satisfaction was derived not necessarily from Morris’ one-handed dunk, which was set up by Pierre Jordan late in the first half. Instead, he found it in a moment about six minutes into the second half, when four of his players were on the hardwood scrambling for a loose ball.
Playing in front of a crowd of 9,277, seemingly split between the teams, the Jackets (7-8 overall, 0-1 ACC) stayed in the game with the Blue Devils (13-2, 1-0) with hustle plays like that and production from Rice and guard Mfon Udofia. Rice connected for 28 points on 10-for-17 shooting, tying his career high, and collected eight rebounds. Udofia, often playing at shooting guard when Jordan was on the floor, pitched in 19 points.
In Tech’s 21-5 run that closed the first half after the Blue Devils took a 32-14 lead, Rice and Udofia combined for 15 points. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said he thought it was the best game Udofia has played this season.
“We were grinding; we were getting the loose balls,” Rice said. “They had to feel a little pressure.”
Tech stayed within single digits for the entire second half. The Jackets negated Duke’s defensive pressure by attacking the basket. Tech also out-rebounded Duke 38-26 and turned the ball over 13 times after averaging 17.8 turnovers in the past four games. Gregory saw perhaps his team’s best demonstration of the effort and unselfishness that he has been trying to elicit since his arrival.
“You do it against a highly talented [and], obviously, a very well-coached team, and you have a shot in the last three minutes to win the game,” Gregory said. “That’s what you’re trying to get done.”
Said Rice, “We see how hard [we] work, so we knew that we could compete with anybody. We’ve finally translated it over into the game, I guess.”
Rice and his teammates couldn’t complete the upset, though, resulting in the Jackets' 28th loss in the past 31 games against Duke.
With the score 68-66 with 2:58 to play, Udofia had two free throws to tie the game, but missed both. In Tech’s next two possessions, Udofia turned the ball over as the shot clock wound down, and Rice missed two free throws on the next, giving Duke the opportunity to move to 72-66 with 1:06 to play.
The Jackets reduced the lead to three points on a Rice jump shot with 38 seconds left and two points on a Rice 3-pointer with 31 seconds to go. However, Duke forward Ryan Kelly’s 8-for-8 shooting from the line in the final 40 seconds rebuffed the Jackets.
Tech’s next test will take place Wednesday at N.C. State. Gregory wants to see evidence of his team’s commitment Monday, when the Jackets convene for practice.
“That’s where we’re at right now,” he said. “We need to continue to do it every day to find that consistency as a program.”
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