No. 9 Duke Favored To Avenge Loss To No. 19 Georgia Tech

Sports News - February 4th, 2010 - Written By John Ritter

Despite floundering recently, and falling to ninth in the polls, Duke has two very big reasons to feel confident against Georgia Tech Thursday night. For one, the Blue Devils are 13-0 at home and seem to be a completely different attitude in front of a friendly crowd. And two, the Yellow Jackets haven't won at Cameron Indoor Stadium since 2004.

Georgia Tech stole the momentum with a 71-67 win on Jan. 9th earlier this year, which will probably prevail in the minds of bettors, and it didn't help that Duke was blown out by Georgetown last Saturday in front of a national audience. But the Blue Devils have an appealing history at home against their conference rivals, and are favored by 12 1/2, according to BetED.

The over/under for the game is 144 1/2 in the College Basketball Odds. The Yellow Jackets have covered the spread in eight of their last 10 road games, despite a meager history at Duke.

"They are a different team at home," Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt told the school's official Web site of the Blue Devils, winners of 14 in a row in Durham. "They shoot the ball much better; they're much more explosive defensively and force more turnovers. We're going to have to play better."

The Yellow Jackets are only allowing opponents to shoot 36-percent, and Duke only went 6-of-28 from three-point land in their latest meeting. That's problematic for the Blue Devils, who rely on the three-ball often when they fall behind.

They are clearly more comfortable at home, improving their shooting average to 50-percent at Cameron Indoor and nearly average 89 points per game.

Jon Scheyer, rated the fourth-best guard in the country, according Rivals, leads the team with 18.7 points per game, and was one of the few Duke players who actually played well against Georgia Tech.

"Jon had a good game," said All-American Kyle Singler, who was not one of those few Duke players. "But we kind of rely on him too much. We have to do a better job of helping him out."

It wasn't much better against Georgetown. The Devils turned it over 15 times and only shot 37-percent. What's worse is the Hoyas went off for 71-percent.

That's how well the Yellow Jackets have been shooting lately, too. They made 71.2-percent of their shots against Kentucky State last Saturday behind Glen Rice, Jr. and D'Andre Bell.

"It was good in preparation for (Duke)," said Gani Lawal. "When we're on top of our game, no one can stop us."

Lawal leads the team in both points (14.5) and rebounds (nine).

The favorite in this series is 15-5 ATS over the last 20 meetings. The Blue Devils have won four of the last five overall, and eight of the last 10.