Blue Devils beat Yellow Jackets to give Coach K milestone

DURHAM, N.C. -- Greg Paulus found his long-distance touch and Mike Krzyzewski reached another coaching milestone. Maybe Duke is finally becoming Duke again.

Paulus hit four 3-pointers and finished with 15 points, and the Blue Devils used a fast start to beat Georgia Tech 71-62 Sunday for Krzyzewski's 700th victory at the school.

"We're getting better, and anytime you're getting better, your confidence is going to grow," Paulus said. "We wanted to come out and make as many plays as we could, be intense on defense and try to drive the ball and be aggressive on offense."

Jon Scheyer had 14 points and DeMarcus Nelson added 13 points apiece for the Blue Devils (20-7, 7-6 Atlantic Coast Conference), who never trailed and have bounced back from their first four-game losing streak in 11 years with two straight wins.

Unranked for the first time since 1996, Duke reached the 20-win mark for the 11th straight year and got back above .500 in conference play by avenging a January loss to the Yellow Jackets. The Blue Devils also earned their 20th win over Georgia Tech in the last 22 meetings.

"We're used to winning," forward Josh McRoberts said. "We lost a few games, but we still expect to win every time out."

Krzyzewski improved to 700-198 in his 27th season as the Blue Devils' coach, and his career record of 773-257 includes five seasons at Army. The student section serenaded him with a "Coach K" chant during a postgame ceremony to mark the occasion, which he called "a nice surprise."

"I had no idea about 700. Are you kidding me?" Krzyzewski said. "We [were] 6-6 in the conference. ... so I was shocked at the end of the game."

Anthony Morrow had 16 points and Javaris Crittenton added 10 before fouling out to lead the Yellow Jackets (17-9, 5-7), who have lost 18 of their past 19 road games and were denied their first victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium since 2004.

Duke pushed its lead into double figures late in the first half and spent the rest of the day holding off the Yellow Jackets. Georgia Tech got as close as five when Morrow's 3-pointer from the right corner made it 61-56 with about 6 minutes remaining.

"We fought back in the second half, but it was too big a hole in the first half," Yellow Jackets coach Paul Hewitt said.

David McClure followed with a dunk and Nelson hit two free throws to give the Blue Devils a cushion. Georgia Tech never got closer than seven the rest of the way.

Four Georgia Tech freshmen made their first visit to Duke's famous arena, and it showed: The Yellow Jackets had 16 of their 22 turnovers in the first half, and the Blue Devils finished with 35 points off those miscues.

"If it was a fight, they would have stopped it," Hewitt said. "They were just battling us, and we didn't do anything to respond."

The Blue Devils used a big run late in the first half to take control. They outscored Georgia Tech 18-5 during about a 6-minute span, building a 41-24 lead on Scheyer's steal and layup 41 seconds before halftime.

"We built enough of a lead in the first half so we could keep the lead," Paulus said.