Georgia Tech Upsets Duke, 86-81

For the first half, Stephon Marbury was content to let his Georgia Tech teammates set the pace. In the second half, he chose to lead the way.

Marbury went on a scoring tear in the second half Sunday, getting 23 of his 27 points and leading Georgia Tech to an 86-81 victory over No. 19 Duke in an Atlantic Coast Conference game in Durham, N.C.

Marbury spent most of the first half on the perimeter. He made only two of seven shots as Duke’s man-to-man defense slowed him and most of the Yellow Jackets for about 17 minutes.

For the second consecutive game, Duke saw a double-digit lead vanish, and it was Marbury who made it disappear.

He scored Georgia Tech’s first eight points of the second half with a pair of three-point baskets and a short jump shot he created by driving into the interior of the Blue Devils’ defense.

Georgia Tech, 8-7 overall, 2-0 in the ACC, made 10 of its first 12 attempts and shot 70.8% in the second half.

After three ties and three lead changes, a three-point basket by Matt Harpring gave Georgia Tech the lead for good at 52-49 with 13:53 to go.

The Blue Devils (9-4, 0-2) held the deficit at three points for the next six minutes, but three-point baskets by Drew Barry and Gary Saunders, sandwiched around a follow shot by Eddie Elisma, took Georgia Tech to a 73-63 lead with 5:17 to go.

OTHER GAMES

The game between No. 11 Syracuse and Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J., was postponed because of a winter storm that was expected to dump up to two feet of snow on the state. Also postponed because of the storm was the game between No. 18 Virginia Tech and St. Joseph’s in Blacksburg, Va. . . . DeJuan Wheat scored 22 points and Samaki Walker had 17 in Rosemont, Ill., as Louisville made DePaul’s Conference USA debut a losing one, defeating the Blue Demons, 81-71. Louisville (10-4, 2-0) trailed only twice. DePaul, led by Brian Currie’s career-best 22 points and 18 from Marcus Singer, is 7-5 overall. . . . In another Conference USA game, Amal McCaskill scored 18 points to lead Marquette (8-2, 1-0) past St. Louis (8-4, 0-2), at Milwaukee, 69-47. . . . Scott Snider scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds as Gonzaga (9-3) won for the 11th consecutive time at home, a 66-44 victory over Sacramento State (4-10) in a non-conference game in Spokane, Wash. . . . Texas Christian (9-5), after staging a frantic rally to tie the game in regulation, outlasted Montana State (8-5) in three overtime periods to win, 98-96, in Fort Worth, Texas.