Duke rebounded from Monday’s loss to Virginia Tech with a resounding 86-43 road win over Georgia Tech on Saturday. The 43-point win marked the Blue Devils’ second-largest ACC road win in school history and the Yellow Jackets’ worst home loss in more than 40 years. Duke and coach Jon Scheyer managed its stellar outing without star freshman Dariq Whitehead, who is day-to-day with a lower leg injury he suffered against the Hokies.
“Really proud of our team and our effort,” Scheyer said after the game. “We had a tough loss on Monday night and had a really good week of preparation. We felt Georgia Tech was a dangerous team, especially at home. Need to keep building. Every game is tough and to get a win here is a great step.”
Freshman Kyle Filipowski paced five Duke double-figure scorers with 18 points and seven rebounds on 6-of-9 shooting. Fellow freshman big Dereck Lively started his first game since Jan. 4, scored his second-most points of the season (nine) and tied his career-high with 10 rebounds.
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Keep scrolling to see everything Scheyer had to say after the big win over Georgia Tech.
“Really proud of our team and our effort. We had a tough loss on Monday night and had a really good week of preparation. We felt Georgia Tech was a dangerous team, especially at home. And I thought it was probably the best collectively on defense that we’ve played. And then on the offensive end, to share the ball and get 24 assists, to hold them to 43 and then have 24 assists, really proud of this group and how we responded. Especially when we face adversity. I thought Jeremy [Roach] played just an incredibly solid game, and when’s he ready to shoot like that, he’s heard me say it all the time, I think every shot he shoots is going in. Need to keep building, every game is tough and to get a win here is a great step.”
“I think the biggest thing for us, we’ve done that in spurts throughout the year, we haven’t done it for 40 minutes of a game. And with every single one of our guys, it doesn’t come from a selfish place or trying to do it just on your own, it’s knowing what to do and for us. I thought the stretch where they cut it to seven in the first half, we’ve talked about segments of games, for us we felt it was a really important segment. Because it can either be tied at half, it can be a three, four-point game, or we can extend it.
“To push it to 18 is a big deal. So for us, it’s watching film, we had some really competitive practices where we’re just learning how to get to the next action. If that’s not there, let’s say we call a play, what to do next? Where, for a lot of our guys, they haven’t had to do that. Proud of them learning, proud of them blocking out any noise, just focusing on getting better every day. It thought it really translated today with our offense.”
“I had a year to get ready for this. It’s different when you’re in it. This is the youngest team ever, in Duke history. And so for us, the way that we’ve responded to a loss or a setback this year, that’s what our program is all about. The only way you do that is if you hate the outcome. There’s no moral victories, there’s no part of me that was happy after losing to Virginia Tech but I’ve also seen with our group how we’ve gotten better. There’s no question we’re better than we were a month ago, or two months ago. And this league is really tough. It can expose you, especially on the road, and I think that’s been a big adjustment for us. I believe in this group, while also at the same time understanding the areas we have to get better at.”
“Dariq’s progressing really well. Just fortunate that it wasn’t worse. It was scary at the time when he went down. And we want to make sure with him that we give him the right practice time to get back on the court where he can actually, we don’t want to just throw him out there where he hasn’t had a chance to get reps in practice. So, we’ll see. He hasn’t been able to do more than what he did on the court today. But obviously, he’s out there working every day with our medical team and strength and condition team, and we’ll just continue to take it day-by-day with him and make sure we don’t rush it with him but also we want him back as soon as possibly he can be back.”
“Talking about getting better, Tyrese from the start of the season to now has just grown tremendously. And we’re at our best when Tyrese is doing this. And we have weapons on the floor and I thought he put them in a great position to be really successful. I’m not positive, but I think a couple of Jeremy [Roach’s] 3’s were from Tyrese. I don’t know how many, whether it’s two or three, but Jeremy, you’re asking him the question about carrying the load for the most part of the year, he hasn’t had anybody necessarily make him better. And Tyrese can do that. So what he’s done, distributing the ball, he competes and defends all the time, that’s an added element for us that’s made us a lot better.”
“Yeah, that was great, let’s see if we can do it again. That was great. I think it was part of how the game went and you know, for Dereck [Lively II], that’s been something he’s had to work through. I thought he did a great job of playing without his hands, not putting his hands on guys. We need him in the game, but we’ll see if we can do that again coming up.”
“First with Dereck – I’ve seen, and we’ve seen as a staff the last two weeks, he’s had a different level of confidence. What he’s done on the court, the Virginia Tech game I thought was pretty good, Miami game and this game, he really changed the game. And it’s not always going to translate with points because he’s a threat. So when he’s on the court, you can see the way the defense adjusts, especially in pick-and-roll. So for us, Ryan [Young] has been so solid, we need him to stay ready for us. And he’s going to be in there. But for Dereck, we just feel like it’s a time where he’sreally, it’slike he’s on a launching pad right now. And he’s got a chance to take off and today was a start of it.”
“Jaden, he’s been working every day. Been working every day. We have good players. He’s improved, I’ve been able to see that throughout the course of the year. He’s kept a great attitude even though nobody likes not playing. You shouldn’t like playing. He’s stayed ready, I thought he gave us some really good minutes today. Didn’t hit a three, but I thought every one he took was going in. I’ve seen that many times in practice. So, different guys need to step up and we’ve had some injuries and things like that. Really proud of both those guys for just staying with it and working.”
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