Georgia Tech falls to No. 1 Duke in ACC tournament

Staff Reports

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Georgia Tech raced out to a 14-point lead in the first half, but top-seeded and No. 1-ranked Duke rallied to defeat the eighth-seeded Yellow Jackets, 78-70, in the quarterfinals of the T. Rowe Price ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament on Thursday afternoon.

Despite the loss, Georgia Tech (17-16) has won nine of its last 14 games and is in contention for its first postseason berth since 2021. The Yellow Jackets will learn their postseason fate on Sunday.

The Yellow Jackets dominated the action early in the game, making 10 of their first 21 shots while holding Duke to just six makes on 23 attempts, and Baye Ndongo’s tip-in with 5:02 to go in the first half gave the Jackets a commanding 26-12 lead.

Tech led by five at the half (31-26), but Duke opened the second period with a 12-0 run to take a 38-31 advantage. Duke stretched its lead to as many as 11 points, but the Yellow Jackets hung tough and cut the deficit to six on three occasions in the final 90 seconds before succumbing to the top-ranked Blue Devils.

The eight-point win is Duke’s smallest margin of victory in its current nine-game winning streak. The Devils (29-3) defeated opponents by an average of 29.5 points per game over its previous eight wins.

Duncan Powell led Georgia Tech in scoring for the second-straight game, pouring in 24 points. Ndongo (15 points) and Lance Terry (12) rounded out three Yellow Jackets in double figures.

Duke’s Kon Knueppel led all scorers with 28 points, as the Devils move on to face the winner of Thursday’s Wake Forest-North Carolina quarterfinal in Friday’s semis.