WRAL Sports Fan

WRALSportsFan

Duke beats Ga. Tech, 82-70

By Jake Lloyd

Mar 15, 2008

Charlotte, N.C. — No one on Duke's team will argue that DeMarcus Nelson is the most vocal leader.

The senior captain isn't exactly a rah-rah type of guy.

But late in the second half of Friday's ACC Tournament quarterfinal against Georgia Tech, Nelson was at his best, recapturing his teammates' attention after the Yellow Jackets trimmed a 20-point Duke lead to two.

Nelson's words and actions resulted in an 82-70 Duke victory that vaulted the Blue Devils into Saturday's second semifinal against either Clemson or Boston College.

The game is scheduled to tip at approximately 4 p.m.

When Georgia Tech cut the Devils' lead to 52-50 with 13:37 remaining on a Lewis Clinch jumper, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski called timeout.

In the huddle, Nelson took over.

"He just said, like, 'It's time to man up, you know, you either win or you go home,'" Lance Thomas said. "And the feeling we had last year at this tournament, losing in the first round to N.C. State, we vow that we're not going to feel that again and we're not going to allow ourselves to be put in that position.

"So, you know, bringing that back up and basically asserting himself in that huddle was very big for us."

Nelson finished with 17 points, nine rebounds and a career-high seven assists.

Jon Scheyer led the Devils with 18 points off the bench, including a 10-for-11 performance from the free-throw line.

Greg Paulus scored 13 points, Gerald Henderson added 12 and Thomas chipped in with 10.

After the timeout, Duke scored six consecutive points to make the score 58-50. The big play was a steal by freshman Kyle Singler, who passed to Nelson for a 3-pointer that made it 58-50.

"I think that was the game-changing moment right there, when Kyle got that huge steal and DeMarcus was able to make that shot," Brian Zoubek said.

"That's a senior shot. I was really glad that he was able to get that — it gave him a lot of confidence — and he played pretty strong from then on out."

Nelson's fast-break layup and put-back on consecutive possessions gave the Devils a 73-58 lead with less than 5 minutes to play, and he added another layup with 1:21 remaining that extended an 11-point advantage to 78-65.

"A couple plays today — not just the 3 — he just swung through and willed it (a play to happen)," Krzyzewski said.

Nelson's will was most important after Georgia Tech's response to a 44-29 halftime deficit. The Yellow Jackets quickly erased most of the margin by doing what the Devils did in the first half — attack the rim.

And that created open 3-point looks, such as the one that Miller made to cut Duke's deficit to 52-42 with 17:10 left in the game.

Miller scored 16 points for the Yellow Jackets and Zack Peacock added 13. Anthony Morrow chipped in with 12.

Miller's triple was part of an 11-0 run that culminated with Clinch's jumper. Gani Lawal played a large role during the spurt, making a pair of aggressive post moves — a jump hook and a pretty up-and-under scoop shot.

"In the second half, we started setting some of those flat ball screens, attacking the rim, getting to the basket and getting the ball inside, which we forgot about for a little while in the first half," Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt said.

"I thought our guys battled their tails off, but give them (the Devils) credit."

It was obvious the Blue Devils were rearing to go from the start.

In their first game since losing their regular-season finale to North Carolina six days earlier, Duke quickly established that it was going to attack the basket and go strong for offensive rebounds.

On one possession, the Devils out-hustled the Yellow Jackets to three of their missed shots, eventually resulting in a layup by Thomas.

Duke snared seven of the game's first eight rebounds and finished the game with a 34-31 rebounding advantage.

The Devils turned good defense into good offense to take a commanding 33-16 lead with 7:52 remaining in the half. On one end, Henderson emphatically rejected a shot. The Devils swiftly pushed the ball upcourt, and Henderson stepped into a 3 from the top of the key.

Another triple by Taylor King pushed the margin to 36-16.

Georgia Tech scored 10 consecutive points, bolstered by 3s off the fingertips of Matt Causey and Morrow, to make the score 36-26, but Duke ended the half on an 8-3 spurt.

Sixth man Scheyer best exemplified Duke's attack. One minute, he barreled down the lane for a contested layup plus a foul. A couple minutes later, he contorted his body to convert a reverse layup.

During a 4-minute span when the Devils extended their lead from one to 12 points, Scheyer scored eight points.

"He does a great job of creating contact and getting to the foul line," Paulus said of Scheyer.

Duke took a 15-point lead to halftime despite getting absolutely nothing out of ACC freshman of the year Singler, who picked up two fouls in the first 31 seconds and played a mere 3 minutes in the half.

Singler finished with five points in 19 minutes of play, but the Devils talked at length about the steal and pass to Nelson after the game.

"Him making that one play kind of made up for everything because it was the turning point in the game," Krzyzewski said. "And for him to be able to do that after kind of having this weird game was huge."

Coming off its best shooting game of the season in its 94-76 first-round win over Virginia, the Yellow Jackets didn't show the same crisp ball movement against the Devils for most of the game. There was more standing around, more one-on-one play, and Georgia Tech shot just 44.3 percent from the field.

"We weren't moving," Hewitt said. "We talked an awful lot about back screens early. We got some good offense by setting ball screens and flat ball screens, but then we hit that lull."

The Devils made 28 of 54 field goals (51.9 percent), but for a 5-minute stretch early in the second half, they managed one field goal — a runner by Henderson.

"I'm not sure what happened there," Zoubek said. "We might have relaxed a little bit or forgotten a few keys on defense, like not leaving shooters like Morrow and stopping people on drives.

"We stopped playing team defense. We maybe thought a little more individualistic."

But then the timeout was called, and Nelson did what successful leaders do.

"Everybody was scattered," Thomas said of the timeout. "We knew we had to get it together, and DeMarcus took control of that situation.

"Him being our captain, we follow his lead. If DeMarcus says, 'Jump,' we say, 'All right.' DeMarcus has been here four years. DeMarcus has been that guy who's gotten us to where we are right now."