In a tournament riddled with upsets, the No. 1 seed Duke Blue Devils bucked the trend and won the Atlantic Coast Conference finals Sunday against the No. 7 seed Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, 65-61.
With 3:27 left in the game, the Jackets went down 10 points, but Tech stormed back with a 9-0 run and cut the Duke lead to just one with 48 seconds off a dunk by freshman forward Derrick Favors.
On the Devils’ next possession, Duke senior Jon Scheyer hit an open 3-pointer, the biggest shot of the tournament, to go up by four and ice the game.
Prior to the made shot, Scheyer was 1-of-8 from beyond the arc and had been struggling all tournament with his shooting.
“At the end, Jon Scheyer made an unbelievable shot,” Tech head coach Paul Hewitt said. “If you’re a basketball fan, enjoy it for what it is. I told him after the game, ‘That was a hell of a shot you just made’... so I think we should enjoy it for what it was, a great basketball game.”
Despite his shooting troubles recently, Scheyer still felt confident, and he wanted the ball at the end.
“My shot has been better, I will say that,” Scheyer said. “Even though I wasn’t hitting, I still wanted the opportunity in the end to shoot the ball. They set a really good screen for me, and I’m just happy it went in. I didn’t want to let my team down there.”
Scheyer’s shot ultimately won the game, but the free-throw shooting for Duke kept the Devils in the game to give the senior a chance to win it all.
The Devils went to the line 28 times, converting on 24 of them, and junior Kyle Singler hit 14-of-16 alone, while Tech only made 12-of-16.
Before Scheyer’s shot to win the game, the Devils had not made a field goal since a dunk by Mason Plumlee with 4:22 remaining.
“(Making free throws) was big for us because we didn’t really make any shots toward the end of the game, so making free throws was big for us,” Singler said.
Duke made more free throws, but the Jackets outrebounded the Devils, made four more field goals, shot nearly 10 percent better from the field and equaled the Devils in 3-point shooting with five each, though the Jackets did have seven more turnovers.
To begin the game, the Jackets turned the ball over five straight times and did not even get a field goal attempt until sophomore guard Iman Shumpert missed a 3-pointer with 17:01 left to play in the first half. The Jackets eventually recovered, but the sloppy play to start out resulted in an eight point deficit and made the difference in the game. Tech never led during the contest.
“They were a little too excited, a little too amped up to play,” Hewitt said.
The game against Duke was the fourth one in as many days for Tech, and the loss prevented the Jackets from becoming the first team to win the finals by playing four games in four days. Even though Tech had a difficult road to the championship game, Hewitt and his players did not believe fatigue was a factor in the loss to Duke.
“You’re playing for the ACC championship, there’s no time to be tired,” junior forward Gani Lawal said.
“I never sensed in our huddle that it was difficult from a physical standpoint or a mental standpoint, Hewitt said. “I thought our guys were pretty fresh.”
The tournament win for Duke marks the 18th ACC title for the Blue Devils, surpassing North Carolina for the all-time lead, and is the ninth win in the last 12 championships.
With the victory, Duke likely wrapped up a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, but the Devils are savoring the moment while they can.
“This is really exciting,” Scheyer said. “I could do this 100 times. This could never get old. This was a big goal of ours, but there’s a lot more we want to do. We’re going to enjoy it tonight, but once we find out who we’re playing and where we’re going, that’s where our minds are going to be.”
“I told them after the game in the 30 years that I have been here there aren’t many teams that have won the regular season and the tournament. When you do that, it is an accomplishment. Last year’s win was great, but when you do both, that’s better obviously,” said Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski.