DURHAM, NC – After three losses to start the ACC schedule, Thursday night was no time for Brian Gregory to worry about geography.
Playing No. 3 Duke at frenzied Cameron Indoor Stadium didn’t stop him from giving freshman Chris Bolden the first start of his college career, making that three freshmen in the starting lineup, along with Robert Carter Jr. and Marcus Georges-Hunt.
If this is Georgia Tech’s future, it’s looking bright, after Bolden racked up a career-high 20 points. But he and the Yellow Jackets are still working on the “now.” They played Duke tough for 20 minutes and led by as many as seven points in the first half, but succumbed 73-57 to a team eager to atone for its first loss Saturday at N.C. State.
“Those young guys got a little baptism under fire today, but I thought they responded pretty well,” Gregory said. “We’ve just got to get back to work. We’re getting better, but to compete for 40 minutes against a quality team like Duke, you’ve got to do a couple things a little better.”
One is free throw shooting. Tech went 9-for-18 Thursday. And the other was ball security. The Yellow Jackets (10-6, 0-4) had a season-high 21 turnovers.
“It doesn’t show right now with the ACC record but we know we’re really close to being good,” said Daniel Miller, who finished with nine points and nine rebounds. “We’ve just got to make up a few things.”
Duke (16-1, 3-1) is 15-1 coming off a loss since 2009-2010. Although the Yellow Jackets kept Mason Plumlee in check in the first half (six points) he finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds. And senior guard Seth Curry kept pouring in 3-pointers, making 6-for-7 of them, to finish with 24 points.
“They have two premier players not just in this league, but in the country in Plumlee and Curry,” Gregory said. “I think Curry is a little banged up, but he played extremely well in that second half.”
Curry made two 3-pointers during a 17-3 run to open the second half. Gregory called two timeouts in a span of one minute and 15 seconds, to little avail. Tech, which had led 28-27 at halftime, was down 10 points just past four minutes into the second half.
“I only used two because I couldn’t use all four,” Gregory said. “…We competed hard and at times with young guys they lose their composure a little bit and I thought you saw a little bit of that tonight, which is understandable. But right now in our program we’ve got to make it where it’s unacceptable.”
Thursday was the first time Tech started three freshmen since December of 2009 when Paul Hewitt sent Derrick Favors, Mfon Udofia, and Brian Oliver to the floor against Florida State and Kennesaw State.
Bolden got the start ahead of Brandon Reed and nearly matched his previous season-high (12 points off the bench vs. Tulane) in the first half. He sank an NBA-range 3-pointer with his first touch and scored seven of Tech’s first 11 points on his way to 11 points in the half.
Bolden scored both the first and last basket of the game for Tech, going 7-for-13 along the way. He went 4-for-8 from 3-point range, while the rest of the Yellow Jackets went 0-for-8.
“He’s earned (the start) because of his practice habits and then he obviously played extremely well today," Gregory said. "And he made a gazillion mistakes out there too but his competitiveness was good, his aggressiveness was good and I think you see that down the road he could be an exceptional player in this league.”
Bolden found out early in the week he would get his first start at Cameron, where Duke is 435-57 all-time under coach Mike Krzyzewski.
“Right then I changed my mentality for preparation,” Bolden said. “I knew I had to mature right then. It couldn’t be any questions asked - coming into Duke, Cameron Indoor Stadium. I already knew that was going to be a big step, especially having a new role on the team.”
Before the first half was over, Carter Jr. would make his presence known too, blocking Plumlee from behind on what first looked like an open dunk. Carter and Miller took turns limiting the national player of the year candidate to six points in the first half on 2-for-12 shooting.
Carter Jr. collided with Plumlee after making an open-floor dunk in the second half and landed hard on his back. He writhed in pain for a few moments but was able to walk off the court on his own and return to the game a few minutes later. Gregory said Carter will be sore but should be OK.
"I thought our guys played with great energy, great intensity, pretty good toughness in a tough environment," Gregory said.
