DURHAM — In their ACC opener in early December, the Duke Blue Devils went to Georgia Tech and lost by four points, dropping to 5-3 on the young season.
Seven straight wins later, Duke hosted the Yellow Jackets looking for revenge. The Blue Devils mascot even wore a headband touting that message. “Revenge Day,” it read.
Instead of payback, however, Duke got more of the same for most of the night, trailing Tech for much of the second half before rallying for a hard-fought, come-from-behind 84-79 win.
“It was a gutsy win,” said head coach Jon Scheyer, who saw his Blue Devils move to 13-3 on the year, 4-1 in conference play.
In the December game, Duke lost point guard Tyrese Proctor in the second minute of play when the sophomore playmaker sprained his ankle, an injury that kept him out four weeks.
On Saturday, Duke entered down a man. Sophomore forward Mark Mitchell, who has come up big in recent games, was in street clothes after spraining his knee.
“Mark hasn’t been able to do much,” said Scheyer, who cast doubt on Mitchell’s likelihood of being ready to play next Saturday. “We’re taking it step by step.”
With Mitchell out, reserve big man Ryan Young stepped up, scoring 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting and adding nine rebounds.
“Going into this game without Mark — he’s such an important guy for us,” Scheyer said. “Removing him from the equation puts everybody in a different spot.”
Then, late in the second half, senior Jeremy Roach limped off the court, favoring his right knee. After a quick trip to the locker room with the medical staff, he attempted to return to the game but lasted a minute before limping off again.
“I don’t know what happened to him exactly,” Scheyer said, “but for Jeremy not to be in the game, something happened there.”
In Roach’s place, Proctor finally got the chance to shine against the Yellow Jackets, hitting back-to-back 3s to lead a Duke rally, then pump faking a third 3 to pull the defense toward him, opening Young underneath for a pass and layup.
The Blue Devils would need everything Proctor and Young could offer to overcome a suddenly hot-shooting Georgia Tech team. The Jackets entered the game shooting 42% on the year and below 30% from 3. Tech shot 54.5% in the game and hit 11 of 20 from deep. Naithan George, who had just seven made 3-pointers all year, hit 3 of 6 from 3 as Georgia Tech built a 10-point second-half lead.
“We kept telling the guys not to overreact to the type of shots they were hitting,” Scheyer said, “but they just kept hitting them.”
Duke rallied, getting a pair of 3s from Kyle Filipowski, who scored a career-high 30 points, becoming the first Blue Devil with 30 since Matthew Hurt, nearly three years ago.
It was the defensive end that sparked the rally, however. Jaylen Blakes blocked a layup, and Roach snatched away a Georgia Tech pass like a football cornerback, taking it back for a layup. Proctor added a late steal as well as Duke had six takeaways on the night and scored 15 points off of turnovers.
Roach finished with 18 points and two steals before the injury. Proctor had 17 points on 3-of-5 shooting from deep, turning in his best game since his own injury against the Yellow Jackets.
“You’re not 100% the first game you come back,” Scheyer said. “There’s some rust. You can’t work as much as you want. This week, the last couple days, he got back to his work. … You’ve got to trust that work. It’s gonna come. But we had it rolling a little bit (while he was out). He’s coming back in, it’s not like you’re getting a million shots. He played defense, rebounded, had personality, and the the shots came with it. It’s a good thing. We needed him in a big way.”
Revenge may be sweet, but the Blue Devils had to settle for the sweet taste of a hard-earned victory.
“Down the stretch, they found a way to win,” Scheyer said. “That’s what it’s all about in ACC play.”
