Basketball stuns Duke 74-63
By Ethan Trewhitt / Student Publications
Students rush the court after Tech's first home victory against Duke since before the Olympics were held in Atlanta in 1996.
The Yellow Jackets stunned the No. 11 ranked Duke Blue Devils in a 74-63 victory last Wednesday at Alexander Memorial Coliseum. The Jackets had not won against Duke since the 2003 season when the Jackets won 76-68 at Cameron Indoor Stadium on their way to the Final Four. Tech's last home win against Duke came in 1996 as the Jackets won 73-71 in overtime. This was Tech's first conference win after losing on the road to Miami and to Clemson to open conference play.
"It was more important to us to get our first conference win," Head Coach Paul Hewitt said when asked whether it was more important to win over Duke or get Tech's first ACC win of the season.
After the end of the first half, both the Jackets and the Blue Devils struggled to keep a hand on the basketball. The Jackets turned the ball over 11 times to Duke's eight. Even with the turnover difference, Tech was able to take a 34-29 lead going into the locker room.
Junior center Ra'Sean Dickey led the Jackets with 14 points going 4-5 from the field, and 6-7 at the charity stripe. For the game, Dickey scored a season-high 21 points, with six rebounds and a block.
"We wanted to try and go inside to [Dickey]. We felt that one of the things we didn't do as well last Saturday was getting the ball inside," Hewitt said when asked why Dickey was getting the ball so much in the first half.
To begin the second half of play, Tech and Duke battled back and forth trading buckets and turnovers. Before the 11 minute mark of the half, the lead never extended farther than six and never got lower than three.
The game turned in Tech's favor with 10:14 to go when Anthony Morrow hit a three-point jumper from the right corner to give the Jackets a 54-43 lead over the Blue Devils. Duke battled back into the game and closed the deficit to just two with 5:28 to go in the game, but never tied the game or took the lead.
The Duke comeback was fueled by the play of freshman guard Jon Scheyer and junior guard DeMarcus Nelson. In the four minute time span where Duke shaved the Tech advantage to just two, Scheyer hit a three and a free throw, while Nelson picked up two fast break layups off of turnovers.
For the game, Scheyer was the Blue Devils leading scorer with 16 points, four assists and one steal. Nelson also had 12 points, four assists and four steals.
The Jackets matched the second half run of the Blue Devils with one of their own. Freshman point guard Javaris Crittenton and junior guard Anthony Morrow made the biggest impact in stopping Duke's run. In a three-minute span, Crittenton picked up two turnovers and turned them into two fast break layups which helped Tech take their lead back up to eight. After Tech put the lead back up to eight with 2:47 to go, Morrow hit several key free throws to seal the game in the closing minutes.
"I just never gave up. No matter how I'm playing as an individual, I want the team to win. I just wanted my team to win, and was going to do whatever it took for that to happen," said Javaris Crittenton, as reported by ramblinwreck.com.
For the game, Morrow had 19 points and shot a perfect 8-8 at the free throw line. Crittenton finished with 11 points, five assists and one steal.
