Georgia Tech falls to Duke 68-51

Feb 18, 2014; Atlanta, GA, USA; Duke Blue Devils forward

(1) drives to the basket around Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets guard

(11) in the first half at Hank McCamish Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports

For the second time this season, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets got beat up by Coach K and the Duke Blue Devils, moving to .500 on the season with their 13th loss. Georgia Tech did an admirable job slowing down Duke’s offense, but their offense continued to struggle and the Jackets fell 68-51.

Jabari Parker showed why he was one of the best players in college basketball yet again, scoring 16 points on 50 percent shooting, and hauling in a game-high 14 rebounds. The Jackets (as well as everyone else who plays Duke) knew coming into this one that Parker was going to be the biggest challenge defensively, and like many other teams, Georgia Tech couldn’t contain him.

In addition to Parker, Rodney Hood had a good offensive performance for the Blue Devils, shooting 4-6 from 3-point range and putting up 14 points. Hood can be pretty inconsistent, but unfortunately for Georgia Tech, he was on tonight. The only other Duke player to eclipse the double-digit scoring mark was Rasheed Sulaimon, who scored 11 on just 2-5 shooting, but a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line.

Georgia Tech should be proud of the defensive effort they had, as they limited Duke to their fewest points since scoring just 67 against Miami back in January. However the offense just wasn’t enough like many other games throughout the season. The Jackets shot below 40 percent from the field, and made just three 3-point shots. Those shooting numbers plus the team’s 13 turnovers doesn’t add up to a huge upset against a vastly superior team.

Going forward though, the Jackets have to be happy with the production that Robert Carter Jr. is showing. Coming off of the bench he scored 13 points on 5-9 shooting and also brought down eight rebounds. Once he is back to his regular minutes and starting, Tech could have quite a good combination between Daniel Miller, Marcus Georges-Hunt and Trae Golden (who struggled tonight off of the bench) and surprise some teams in the ACC tournament.