Duke’s offense started slow in this one. The first possession featured a nicely executed lob pass from Wendell Moore to Mark Williams, but there were mostly empty possessions to begin the game. At the under 16 timeout, Georgia Tech lead 8-5.
Duke and Georgia Tech traded leads four times over the next four minutes. Duke fell behind by four with 11:46 to play in the half, but was able to prevent Georgia Tech from building any real separation.
Duke regained the lead with 8:56 to play on a Matthew Hurt fadeaway jump shot. Duke would not give up the lead for the remainder of the half.
A three from Wendell Moore gave Duke their biggest lead (six) of the half with 1:26 to play, but Georgia Tech was able to trim Duke’s lead to three with a three pointer as time expired in the half.
It was a very even first four minutes of the second half, with Georgia Tech outscoring Duke 11-10 during this stretch. The opening minutes saw both Jeremy Roach and DJ Steward record their first points of the game. The vast majority of the production continued to come from Moore, Hurt, or Williams. With 11:38 left to play, the game was tied at 50.
Matthew Hurt fouled out with 6:14 to play in what was, to put it mildly, a highly questionable call. By the 5:23 mark of the second half, Duke trailed by eight. Duke went on a 8-0 run to end regulation and send the game to overtime.
For the second straight game, Duke was outplayed in the extra minutes. Duke had a hard time generating offense in the extra period. Georgia Tech slowly built their lead in the extra session, and lead by seven with 0:28 to play. Duke went on a frantic run in the final seconds to put a bit of pressure on Georgia Tech, but would ultimately fall, 81-77.
Five Observations:
Concentrated first half scoring
The first 25 points of the game for Duke were scored by one of Mark Williams, Matthew Hurt, or Wendell Moore. In total, the trio scored 32 of Duke’s 34 first half points. Six came from Mark Williams, 10 came from Matthew Hurt, and 16 came from Wendell Moore. Jaemyn Brakefield scored the only other points of the half for Duke. There was a bit more of a variety in the scoring in the second half. In the end, the Hurt/Williams/Moore scored 52 of Duke’s 77 points.
Poor overtime execution
Duke has really struggled in crunch time scenarios this season, so it comes as no surprise that this is Duke’s seventh loss by six or less points. Surprisingly, Duke had a late game surge in this one to force overtime. But the offense struggled mightily to get anything going in overtime. Multiple possessions ended with lobbing the ball up to Mark Williams and hoping for the best. It did not help that Duke was without Hurt, but the overtime execution needed to be much better.
Inability to contain Moses Wright
Moses Wright dominated Duke in the paint tonight. Wright finished with 29 points and 14 rebounds to go along with three blocks. He kept multiple possessions alive for Georgia Tech with offensive rebounds and consistently made Duke pay around the rim. Duke had no answers for Wright in this one.
Lack of production from starting back court
For the second straight game, Duke got very little from its starting back court. Roach and Steward finished with a combined 11 points on 3/11 from the field, and both had more turnovers than assists. Off the bench, Jordan Goldwire did not provide much in the scoring column with just five points, but he dished out eight assists. No other player on the team finished with more than three assists.
Mark Williams
In a game (and season) full of disappointment, Mark Williams continues to be a bright spot. The Freshman set a new career high in this one with 20 points, and went 9/9 from the field. Williams also grabbed seven rebounds, and recorded three blocks and three steals.