Atlanta-Georgia Tech has been battling Duke for years, and it hasn’t changed under first-year coach John Scheer. The Jackets lost his 86-43, giving him a 7-game losing streak in his ACC play this season, and the Tech fell to his 1st. He finished 10th in his worst league start since 2008-09. Jackets scored only 18 points in the second half. It was Tech’s worst home loss in his ACC history and his fourth worst ACC loss in Tech history.
The seven-game losing streak is the longest ACC losing streak since the 2018-19 season, when the core of Jose Alvarado and Moses Wright struggled. This was Duke’s worst loss since Pastner’s first season, when the Jackets lost him 53, 110-57 in Durham.
Tech head coach Josh Pastner was as honest as ever in assessing the team’s performance on Saturday.
“It wasn’t a good game and Duke kicked the rear end. Their size was overwhelming for us. We felt really small in many areas. It wasn’t a good game for us because of Duke,” Pastner said.
Jacket was completely underwhelming at every stage of the game.
“We looked small,” Pastner said. “We’re small even on the wings. Mark Mitchell was bigger than our center. Sometimes we’re not really tough on the floor and we’re not very good on the floor. We have good young players. “They’re nice off the court and super nice on the court. We have to be tougher in some areas. We need guys who can step up and be really tough on the floor.”
Shire impressed with his team’s performance in victory.
“I’m really proud of our team and our efforts. We had a tough loss on Monday night, but we had a great preparation period. Georgia Tech is a really dangerous team. To get 24 assists on a low, is pretty good,” Shire said.
On a continuing trend, Tech was killed on the inside and Duke outscored Jackets 44-12 in the paint. Star Duke big man Kyle Flipowski had just 18 points after scoring 14 in the first half.
The Blue Devils had five players in double figures: Jeremy Roach (12), Mark Mitchell (11), Jacob Grandison (10) and Ryan Young (10).
Duke shot 55.7 percent from the field and 9-23 from the arc.
Georgia Tech shot 30.9% from the field, 5-22 from the arc, and had only five offensive rebounds in the game. Duke recorded 13 offensive rebounds and 14 second-chance points.
“I know everyone is frustrated with the offense. I’ve struggled with it,” Pastner said.
Tristan Maxwell was the only double figure scorer to score 10 points in 21 minutes off the bench in the first action after missing several games with a hip pointer.
Tech’s five starters scored a total of 25 points on 38 shooting attempts. Center Rodney Howard shared his thoughts on the loss and disappointing performance overall.
Howard said, “I’m sorry for the way we came out for the fans. We didn’t come out the right way. Duke wanted it more than we did, so it didn’t work out.” “I can’t let people come here and kick my ass.”
After a 2-8 night with just 5 points, Coleman, who was visibly emotional in the post-game press conference, summed up the day for him in one word.
“It’s an embarrassment for us and a lot of our fans came out to support us. It’s an embarrassment for Tech,” Coleman said.
Kyle Flipowski continued to play strongly in the first half, scoring 14 points on 4-6 shots and 5-6 from the free line to break all the scorers. Duke hit 6-13 from the first-half arc to open up an 18-point lead, but Tech shot just 34.5% overall, hitting only 3 to 3-9, but Duke’s 18-point lead shot only 34.5% overall. Attempted 2 free throws compared to 10.
“Georgia Tech is small, so we wanted to do big, and we did really well in the second half,” said Jeremy Roach.
Tech travels to Louisville on Wednesday to face the Cardinals team, which has been winless in ACC play this season, before returning to North Carolina on Saturday to start February.
“I’m a really positive guy and a realist. There’s no room for error, there are flaws. My first 11 games at ACC were the toughest schedule in the league. Looking at the back end of the schedule , maybe we can get some wins,” Pastner said. There’s nothing to do, Duke isn’t that old, but we just have multiple first-round picks, and we have a chance and that’s all you can ask for.”
Duke hit 4 of 6 3-point attempts to take a 16-7 lead and give Josh Pastner an early timeout to start the game. Tech continued to struggle on offense, but in transition, thanks to a quick layup from Tristan Maxwell, he cut Duke’s lead to 19-11 and finished the first half at 12-under. Tech narrowed the lead to his 6, but a few turnovers saw Duke extend the lead to 9 with 7:47 left in his third media with his timeouts making him 25-16. returned to Deivon Smith had his two clutches his bucket, including his three to cut Duke’s lead to his 30-23. Duke went on a 6–0 run after a timeout slammed the ball inside, leading to another Tech timeout with 2:27 remaining, Pastner bringing in Cyril Martynov for the first time in an ACC play. Duke closed halftime with him running 14-2 and at the break he led 43-25.
Tech cooled off to start the second half and Duke extended their lead to 30 early in the half thanks to a 3:30 scoreless stretch to start the first half. Things got worse from there.
