Duke basketball dominates Georgia Tech in much needed blowout
The Duke basketball team finally got back on track with a much needed blowout.
Saturday afternoon in Atlanta was a ‘must win’ for the Duke basketball team and the Blue Devils delivered in a major way.
Jon Scheyer saw his team, without Dariq Whitehead, rattle off a wire-to-wire victory against lowly Georgia Tech with contributions from the entire roster.
The most surprising performance came from Dereck Lively II, who was inserted back into the starting lineup and showed a determination to score the ball.
Lively only scored nine points in the 86-43 walloping but finally showed his ability to shoot from the perimeter, knocking down one of his two attempts, as the freshman center also recorded 10 rebounds and three blocks.
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Jeremy Roach was also put back in the starting five for the first time since returning from his toe injury and made four field goals in the victory, all from 3-point territory, with 12 points, five rebounds, and two assists.
The Blue Devils ended the first half on an 13-2 run to take a 43-25 lead into halftime and its second half defense was sensational allowing the Yellow Jackets to only score 18 points after the intermission.
Duke basketball freshmen shine in victory
Kyle Filipowski paced Duke with 18 points and seven rebounds but the play of Tyrese Proctor in the point guard role was extremely encouraging with seven points, eight assist, and no turnovers in 27 minutes.
Mark Mitchell chipped in 11 points, six rebounds, and four assists while the Blue Devils actually saw meaningful minutes from Jaden Schutt although he only scored four points in 13 minutes.
The victory, and margin of victory, came at the perfect time for Duke as the program will face a brutal stretch of games beginning on Tuesday night (7:00p.m. EST, ESPN) against Wake Forest.
The Blue Devils host North Carolina and travel to No. 20 Miami and No. 7 Virginia in its following three contests.