Duke 65, Georgia Tech 61

GREENSBORO - Duke senior guard Jon Scheyer shook off a poor shooting game to come off a baseline screen and fire in the biggest basket of the ACC tournament Sunday afternoon as the top-seeded Blue Devils held on to defeat Georgia Tech 65-61 at the Greensboro Coliseum.

After No. 7 seed Georgia Tech scored nine straight points to cut the deficit to one, Scheyer took a pass from Nolan Smith on the right wing to sink a 3-pointer over Glen Rice with 18 seconds remaining.

Scheyer had missed nine of his previous 12 field goal attempts before that shot. He finished with 16 points, as did backcourt partner Nolan Smith. Kyle Singler scored 20 points to lead the Blue Devils (29-5) as they won their second straight ACC championship and their ninth in 12 years.

Playing its fourth game in four days, No. 7 seed Georgia Tech (22-12) got off to a horrible start, turning it over on its first five possessions. Duke led 17-5 after Smith scored nine points in the first eight minutes.

Freshman Andre Dawkins picked up where Smith left off when Smith was called for his second foul on a charge with 7 minutes, 52 seconds remaining in the half. Dawkins scored seven points in a span of 3:06, including a driving, one-handed jam.

Duke led 29-22 at halftime after Singler sank a pull-up 15-footer from the baseline with eight seconds remaining in the half.

Freshman forward Derrick Favors did his best to try to bring Georgia Tech back, scoring 15 of his 22 points in the second half. But the Blue Devils shot 21-for-23 from the foul line in the second half.

Georgia Tech trailed just 42-38 after an Iman Shumpert 3-pointer with 9:31 remaining, but Jon Scheyer made three free throws and Singler hit both ends of a one-and-one to extend the lead back to nine.

The Yellow Jackets’ defense frustrated Duke at times in the second half, but also took costly fouls and failed to secure two defensive rebounds on plays that gave the Blue Devils a huge lift.

Freshman center Mason Plumlee grabbed them both. He fired one back out to Scheyer for his first 3-pointer of the game, and caught the other with two hands and dunked all in one motion.

But despite trailing 60-50 with 3:25 remaining, the Yellow Jackets scored nine in a row – including four by Favors – to close within one point on a Favors jam with 47.9 seconds remaining.

That’s when Smith got the ball to Scheyer, and the 2009 tournament MVP delivered.