Miss after miss, open look after open look, yet Jon Scheyer ignored them all.
He was not going to stop shooting, not with an Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship on the line and fourth-ranked Duke clinging to a 60-59 lead in the final seconds in Greensboro, N.C. He curled around a screen, took a pass and launched a 3-pointer that dropped perfectly through the net.
It just wasn’t falling,” Scheyer said. But at the end of the games, I felt confident.”
Scheyer’s critical 3-pointer, with 18 seconds left, helped Duke hold off Georgia Tech, 65-61, on Sunday to win a record 18th A.C.C. title. Scheyer, who missed his first six 3-pointers, finished with 16 points.
Kyle Singler, the tournament most valuable player, scored 20 for the top-seeded Blue Devils (29-5), who blew most of an 11-point lead with six minutes left before Scheyer’s big shot.
There’s something about Scheyer that produces wins,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. I’ve loved coaching him because he has this spirit. He’s never afraid, and I admire that because as a player, I’m not sure I had that all the time.”
Duke broke a tie with its rival North Carolina for the most A.C.C. tournament titles, and Krzyzewski’s 12th title is one behind Dean Smith for the most in league history.
Derrick Favors had 22 points and 11 rebounds to lead the seventh-seeded Yellow Jackets (22-12), who were trying to become the first team in tournament history to win four games in four days