Friday March 29th, 2024 1:28AM

Hood scores 27, No. 16 Duke beats Tech 79-57

By The Associated Press
DURHAM, N.C. -- Rodney Hood scored 15 of his 27 points in the second half, and No. 16 Duke beat Georgia Tech 79-57 on Tuesday night.

Quinn Cook added 13 points and slumping freshman Jabari Parker had 12 on 4-of-12 shooting for the Blue Devils (12-3, 1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference).

Playing their first game outside the top 10 since November 2007, they spent half the night proving they deserved their drop before Hood helped them pull away for their 25th straight win at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Marcus Georges-Hunt scored 18 points for the short-handed Yellow Jackets (9-6, 0-2), who shot 49 percent yet lost their second straight.

Duke had trouble getting any sort of separation until Hood hit 3-pointers 45 seconds apart down the stretch.

Hood - who made all five of his 3s in the second half - hit a stepback 3 one possession before knocking down one with a hand in his face to put the Blue Devils up 66-50 with 6 1/2 minutes remaining.

Rasheed Sulaimon scored 11 points and Andre Dawkins added 10 for Duke, which has won 30 of 33 in the series and avoided its first consecutive regular-season losses since February 2009.

Daniel Miller added 14 points for Georgia Tech.

The Yellow Jackets were outrebounded for the first time this season on the same day the ACC's top rebounder - Robert Carter Jr., who averages 9.3 boards- had surgery on the meniscus in his left knee. He has been out since tearing it Dec. 29.

The Blue Devils struggled for much of the game to slow down a Georgia Tech offense that entered 12th in the 15-team ACC in both scoring and field goal percentage, averaging 71 points and making under 43 percent of its shots.

The only thing resembling a Duke run came early in the second half when Sulaimon's 3-pointer capped a quick 12-3 burst that gave the Blue Devils their first double-figure lead, 48-38, with 16 1/2 minutes left.

Duke's streak of 225 consecutive games as a top 10 team came to an end shortly after a 79-77 loss at Notre Dame that sent the preseason ACC favorites tumbling down the rankings.

The defeat led Duke to tweak its starting lineup, reinserting Sulaimon and forward Amile Jefferson in place of seniors Josh Hairston and Tyler Thornton, who had both started the past eight games.

Early on, it didn't seem to help.

The Blue Devils led 34-33 after sleepwalking through a first half in which they allowed Georgia Tech to shoot nearly 54 percent.

The struggles continued for Parker, a 20-point scorer in 10 of his first 12 games who found himself benched late in the Notre Dame loss following a 2-for-10 shooting performance. His only two field goals in the first half of this one were dunks, and he didn't hit a jump shot until midway through the second half.
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