In its toughest challenge since the loss at Georgia on Dec. 19, Georgia Tech overcame Duquesne’s fast-break onslaught to pocket a 73-67 victory against the Atlantic-10 opponent Tuesday night at McCamish Pavilion.
Tech (10-3) closed out the non-conference portion of the regular season on a three-game winning streak and played better defense than it had in the three previous games, the loss to Georgia and then wins over Southeastern Louisiana and Colgate. Tech will open ACC play Saturday against North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Forward Marcus Georges-Hunt led with 20 points on 6-for-14 shooting against the Dukes (10-3).
1. Swift Dukes
Tech was hard-pressed to match Duquesne’s pace, particularly early. With greater depth and more experienced playmakers, the Jackets have sought to press their advantages in transition, but the Dukes gave them a few pointers in how to relentlessly push the pace after missed baskets and turnovers. Duquesne led 26-17 at the 10-minute mark in the first half, a lead built in no small part on the Dukes being quicker down the floor to create open looks at the basket before Tech could retreat and set up on defense.
“It was like they were playing downhill on us,” coach Brian Gregory said. “We were a step slow on some of the stuff.”
Tech improved defensively from that point on and also benefited from greater depth to wear down Dukes guards Derrick Colter and Micah Mason. The two guards, whom Gregory said are as good as Tech will face the rest of the season (Mason is a career 47.9 percent 3-point shooter, the second highest rate in NCAA history), scored 18 points in the first 10 minutes and eight points the rest of the way. Colter played 35 minutes and Mason played 36; the Tech guard with the most minutes was Adam Smith at 29.
2. Smith delivers again
Tech’s offensive play was not up to its standards of the season, as the Jackets shot 40.7 percent from the field, well below their season rate of 46.4 percent. The Jackets seemed to play in a hurry at times, never good for effective shotmaking. They were bailed out by Smith, who continued his 3-point excellence with four 3-pointers on nine tries. They included back-to-back long-range makes that raised Tech from a 56-54 deficit to a 60-56 lead with 6:55 left in the game, a lead it never relinquished.
“He’s just one of those guys that, it doesn’t matter how he shoots it, he can shoot, like a stepback, a fadeaway or just a regular set shot, it still has a 45 percent chacne of going in,” center Ben Lammers said.
Smith, the graduate transfer from Virginia Tech, has 38 3-pointers for the season, as many or more than Tech’s 3-point leader has had in three of Gregory’s first four seasons.
Tighter defense in the second half – Duquesne shot 35.3 percent in the final 20 minutes after making 42.9 percent of its attempts in the first half – also aided, as the Jackets outscored the Dukes 38-31 after halftime. It was an improvement from the previous three games, when the Jackets permitted their three opponents to shoot 45 percent or better.
Gregory said that “we had to play an extremely disciplined game in order to be successful tonight and that’s exactly what we did.”
3. Strong game from Lammers
Center Ben Lammers earned all of his 15 minutes. The sophomore played one of his best games of the season, showing energy and aggressive play that weren’t necessarily reflected in his line – five points, six rebounds and three blocks. Lammers seemed to win every loose ball when he was on the court, made smart passes and recovered from switches quickly.
Gregory called him the player of the game.
“He played unbelievably well,” Gregory said. “That’s the best one-basket performance I’ve seen in 26 years of coaching.”
Lammers is fighting for minutes in the front-court rotation with forwards Charles Mitchell, Nick Jacobs and James White. (He came into the game averaging 14 minutes per game, the fewest of any regular on the team.) Further, he’s a critical piece for the Tech future as he’s the only player of those four who will be back next season. The more he plays as he did Tuesday, the more of the court he’ll see.
4. Foul disparity
Duquesne coach Jim Terry was hit with a technical with 2:42 left in the first half for apparently arguing a foul called on Dukes forward Eric James on a drive by Georges-Hunt. Terry perhaps had reason to gripe about what he was seeing overall. The Jackets shot 25 free throws (making 17) while the Dukes went to the line 10 times (making four).
The Jackets finished the non-conference with 265 free throws to their opponents’ 212, exactly 25 percent more. (Of the extra 53 free throws, Tech got 29 of them in two games, VCU and Duquesne. Last season, Tech shot 262 free throws to 253 for the opposition, four percent more.
5. Good test, but…
Duquesne isn’t a bad team. The Dukes beat Penn State (by 26 points) and Western Kentucky, both RPI top-100 teams after Monday’s games, earlier this season. Their conference, the Atlantic 10, is a pushover for nobody, as evidenced by the conference slotting four teams in the RPI’s top 33.
“We played a heck of a team (Tuesday),” Gregory said. “They are very, very good.”
That said, playing Duquesne at home doesn't come close to approximating what the Jackets will see in their ACC opener Saturday at No. 7 North Carolina or next Wednesday at 10-1 Pittsburgh. The Tar Heels have merely the most efficient offense in the country, according to kenpom.com, and run with the same abandon (and wiht greater depth) than the Dukes. UNC gave Tech two of its worst losses of the season, a 29-point defeat in Chapel Hill, N.C., (it was the first home game for the Tar Heels after Dean Smith's death) and a 32-point loss in the regular-season finale (Georges-Hunt broke his foot early in the game).
Gregory praised Colter for being “just a hard-blast guy” for his explosiveness bringing the ball upcourt in transition.
“We’re going to see that against North Carolina,” Gregory said. “We’re going to see that in a lot of the teams we play.”
The Jackets look like they have the ingredients to improve significantly over the next two-plus months, which they’ll likely need to do to compete in the ACC.
“Had maybe a slip-up here and there in the non-conference, but at 10-3, got to feel good about where we’re at, because I still think we can get better,” Gregory said.
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