Duke escapes Georgia Tech. Three takeaways from Blue Devils’ 84-79 win over Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech’s red-hot shooting and injuries to two Duke starters put the No. 11 Blue Devils’ winning streak in jeopardy Saturday.
It took the best scoring day of Kyle Filipowski’s career for Duke to overcome it all.
Filipowski scored a career-best 30 points while grabbing 13 rebounds as the Blue Devils beat the Yellow Jackets, 84-79, for their eighth consecutive win.
Duke (13-3, 4-1 ACC) overcame Georgia Tech’s 54.5% shooting day. That included the 57.7% the Yellow Jackets shot in the second half.
“Wow,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “That was a big time win for us. Gutsy.”
The Blue Devils led by as many as 10 points in the first half and trailed by as many as 10 in the second, but finally got revenge on the last team to beat them. Duke’s current winning streak started after Georgia Tech’s 72-68 win on Dec. 2 in Atlanta.
Despite Duke not having Mark Mitchell (knee) the entire game and Jeremy Roach (knee) most of the final eight minutes Saturday, Georgia Tech (8-8, 1-4 ACC) suffered its fifth consecutive loss.
Roach scored 18 points prior to his injury while Duke’s Tyrese Proctor added 17, including three 3-pointers over a three-minute span of the second half when the Blue Devils erased a 64-60 Georgia Tech lead to take a 72-69 advantage with 5:53 to play.
Duke, which committed a season-low four turnovers, never trailed again.
Ryan Young added 10 points, all in the second half, for the Blue Devils, who shot 42.9% overall.
Naithan George scored 17 points, while Baye Ndongo and Miles Kelly added 16 each for Georgia Tech. Kelly also had 11 rebounds.
Mitchell injury
Mitchell sat on the bench in street clothes as the Blue Devils played Georgia Tech. It’s the second game Mitchell has missed this season and just the third time this season Duke’s starting five didn’t include him.
Averaging 12.2 points per game this season, Mitchell had back-to-back games with his career high scoring totals during the first week of this month when he scored 21 points in Duke’s 86-66 win over Syracuse on Jan. 2 and 23 points when Duke beat Notre Dame 67-59 on Jan. 6.
With Mitchell unavailable, the Blue Devils used a starting lineup with four guards -- Roach, Proctor, Jared McCain and Caleb Foster. Filipowski was the lone big man among the starters.
Duke has a week until its next game, Jan. 20 at home with Pittsburgh. But Duke coach Jon Scheyer said he isn’t sure if Mitchell will be available.
“He hasn’t been able to do much,” Scheyer said, “so we’ll take it step by step. We’ll see how he’s doing early this week.”
Injury issue for Roach
The heart-and-soul of the Blue Devils this season, Roach limped to the bench with 8:22 to play in the game after banging knees with another player. Duke’s medical staff treated Roach’s right knee, even removing him from the bench area for a short time.
Roach returned to the game with 4:08 remaining but lasted only 59 seconds before he limped to the bench once again, favoring the right knee.
The senior captain’s loss looms large for the Blue Devils because he’s played 33 minutes per game. Five times this season he’s played 37 minutes or more.
Like Mitchell, Scheyer had limited information about Roach’s prognosis other than to say he’d undergo further testing in the next two days.
Block party
Georgia Tech continued a troubling trend for Duke this season by blocking eight of the Blue Devils’ shots. The Yellow Jackets blocked eight when they beat Duke in Atlanta last month. That was one game after Arkansas had 10 blocked shots while beating Duke, 78-70, on Nov. 29.
The Blue Devils have proven highly susceptible to having their shots blocked all season. According to KenPom.com advanced statistics, Duke entered Saturday’s game No. 340 nationally by having 12.8% of its shots blocked this season.
Saturday’s game was the seventh time in 16 games this season an opponent has blocked at least six of Duke’s shots.
