Duke got contributions from unlikely places in the first half.
Freshman forward Ryan Kelly of Raleigh scored the first ACC points of his career on a 3-pointer from in front of the Georgia Tech bench. Kelly also grabbed four first-half rebounds when he had never had more than one rebound in an ACC game.
Former walk-on Jordan Davidson - who was the first guard off the bench instead of freshman Andre Dawkins - helped settle the team with solid defense and pulled down a defensive rebound against players more than a half-foot taller.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said the players who have performed well in practice played Thursday, and there's nothing wrong with Dawkins.
"This isn't the type of thing for him tonight," Krzyzewski said.
Georgia Tech started the game with an unusual defensive approach. The Yellow Jackets used a smaller defender - 6-foot-5 Iman Shumpert - to guard 6-8 forward Kyle Singler and put a bigger guy - 6-6 D'Andre Bell - on the 6-3 Jon Scheyer.
Scheyer didn't seem bothered much by the tactic, and Singler had one of his best games of the season.
It's easy to overlook the play of Duke senior forward Lance Thomas in this win, but Krzyzewski didn't.
Thomas grabbed 11 rebounds and played excellent defense against Georgia Tech's quality post players.
"The obvious story is Kyle, but the hidden story is Lance," Krzyzewski said.
