Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 11, 1993 TAG: 9301110054
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: ATLANTA LENGTH: Long
GA. TECH SHOOTS DOWN DUKE'S 23-GAME WIN STREAK
It took a Best to beat the best.With sophomore point guard Travis Best leading the way, No. 10 Georgia Tech ended No. 1 Duke's school-record 23-game winning streak 80-79 at Alexander Memorial Coliseum on Sunday.
With 15 points, including three 3-pointers, Best was Georgia Tech's most valuable player. But he was by no means the only star in the Yellow Jackets' first victory over Duke in six tries.
Senior forward Malcolm Mackey led Georgia Tech with 19 points, and freshmen Drew Barry and Martice Moore combined for 18 points, six rebounds, eight assists, four blocks and five steals off the bench.
Duke's last loss was on Feb. 23, 1992, at Wake Forest. Georgia Tech had not defeated a defending national champion since a 66-61 win over Villanova in the 1986 NCAA Tournament. It was the Yellow Jackets' first win over a No. 1 team since a 65-59 victory over Kentucky in 1955.
Mackey's most important points were his last three. With 12 seconds left, the 61.4 percent free-throw shooter sank two to give the Yellow Jackets a 79-74 lead. With five seconds left, Mackey hit the second of two free throws for an 80-76 lead. He was 5-of-6 from the line for the game.
"I'm a senior," Mackey said. "I was moving to get the ball. If they were going to foul, I'd rather it be me at the free-throw line than anyone else. I've been there before, and I know I can handle the pressure."
Mackey's second free throw turned a 3-point shot by Duke's Marty Clark at the buzzer into a meaningless score.
"I'm really proud of Malcolm and the way he handled the pressure at the line," said Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins. "If he doesn't hit that last free throw, Clark's shot would have tied the game."
But without Best, the Yellow Jackets were only the second-best team on the floor. The proof came in the final eight minutes of the first half when Best sat with two fouls and Duke climbed back into the game.
Georgia Tech opened on a furious pace, scoring the first 12 points and running off a 19-5 lead. Before Duke senior point guard Bobby Hurley hit a 3-point shot 3:57 into the game, the Blue Devils committed five turnovers and missed three shots.
That torrid pace continued until Best's second foul, when Hurley tried a 3-point shot with 8:27 left. That sent Georgia Tech's floor leader to the bench and opened the door for Duke.
"Tech really came out at a high level and played us as hard or harder than anyone," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. "Our kids could have started out stronger. But it's not like I'm down on our guys. Georgia Tech played hard for 40 minutes, and they deserved to win."
With Best sitting, Georgia Tech had trouble getting the ball down the floor against Duke's pressure defense and stopped running an effective offense. The Yellow Jackets were particularly strong inside with Best distributing the ball, but they couldn't crack Duke's zone defense without him.
"It was frustrating, but I knew the coaches would decide when to let me back in the game," Best said. "Coach Cremins has been getting on me about my fouls. I knew I'd be sitting after the second one. The only thing I could do was keep my head in the game and stay ready."
The Blue Devils started catching up one point at a time by hitting 18 of 23 free throws in the first half. Georgia Tech tried only one free throw before halftime.
Grant Hill made 10 of 10 free-throw attempts in the first half and 13 of 14 for the game. Hill led both teams with a career-high 29 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
"You can't expect a player like Grant Hill to miss free throws," Georgia Tech forward James Forrest said. "We just gave them 10 points in the first half by sending him to the line. I started telling the other guys to stop fouling him. He was killing us."
After trailing 44-37 at the half, Duke used a 12-2 run to take its first lead 60-59 on a layup by Hill with 9:20 left.
With 9:13 left, Cremins called a timeout and delivered a simple message to his team.
"He told us we had the momentum, we had the game under control, and we were just giving it away," Mackey said.
Cremins said he challenged his players by telling them he didn't think they had the mental toughness to stay in the game.
Cremins also had an important decision to make. Best picked up his fourth foul, and assistant coaches Kevin Cantwell and Sherman Dillard were pleading for Cremins to stick him back on the bench.
"I said, `No, let's go for it,' " Cremins said. "Sometimes you just have to gamble. Sometimes your gambles pay off. Travis has shown a tendency to get into foul trouble, and that has hurt us. That's why I kept him out for so long in the first half."
But Cremins made one more important move during the timeout by sticking Moore on the floor. Moore did not start because of a bout with the flu and played 14 scoreless minutes in the first half.
But along with Barry, Moore helped pull the Yellow Jackets back in the game. The two scored 15 of Georgia Tech's next 17 points as the Yellow Jackets took a 76-69 lead with 2:13 left.
The Blue Devils scored the next five points to make it 76-74 with 1:04 left. Duke decided to test Georgia Tech at the free-throw line. Forrest, who had 14 points and nine rebounds, hit one of two free throws to force Duke to try the 3-point shot.
With 20 seconds left, both Hurley and Thomas Hill missed, the second bouncing over the backboard to give Georgia Tech the ball with 12 seconds remaining. That led to the first of two fouls on Mackey after inbound passes.
Keywords:
BASKETBALL