03/14/2008 - Al Featherston, GoDuke.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Kyle Singler’s first ACC Tournament game could have been a forgettable experience. Instead, he made it a memorable one.

“That’s not how I wanted to start off,” Singler said. “Then I had the opportunity to make some plays and knock down that big shot.”

The ACC freshman of the year committed two fouls in the first 31 seconds of Duke‘s 82-70 victory over Georgia Tech. He promptly marched to the bench and ended up playing just three minutes in the first half without scoring a point, passing out an assist or pulling down a rebound. And when Duke saw most of its 19-point second half lead against Georgia Tech melt away, the 6-8 forward must have thought he was living through a nightmare.

Singler admitted that he was a bit nervous to open the game -- and that nervousness led to his first foul, when he bumped Tech point guard Mo Miller.

“The second one was just bad luck,” Singler insisted. “That’s the end of it and I‘m moving on.”

Coach Mike Krzyzewski was disappointed to see his young standout get into such quick trouble.

“He shouldn't be a freshman now because he’s played 30 games,” Coach K said. “I thought he handled it fairly well, but we're looking forward to him not committing two fouls in the first 30 seconds. [Getting in early foul trouble], it affects your rhythm. You warm up really hard and you have 45 minutes of stretching ... you warm up, you're a starter averaging 30 minutes ... and all of a sudden you play three or four minutes in the first half ... That has an impact on anybody in that situation.”

But the Duke coach was pleased with the impact Singler had on the game when Duke was in crisis.

The Blue Devils had managed to forge a 50-31 lead early in the second half without a contribution from Singler. However, over the next six minutes, nothing seemed to work for the Blue Devils, while the Jackets looked unstoppable. The Blue Devils big lead melted away as Georgia Tech closed to within two points with just over 13 minutes to play. The lead was still a mere 53-50 when DeMarcus Nelson missed a 3-point try and Georgia Tech’s Jeremis Nelson rebounded and made a quick outlet pass.

That’s when Singler turned his night around.

First, he picked off Smith’s outlet pass near midcourt, dribbled to the top of the key, then found Nelson in the left corner open for the 3-pointer. Given a second chance, the senior buried it.

“I think that was the game-changing moment, when Kyle got that steal and DeMarcus was able to hit that shot,” Duke’s Brian Zoubek said.

Singler followed up his steal with a stop at the other end -- he took a charge from Smith. And back on offense, he took a pass from Jon Scheyer and powered up a shot in traffic for his first basket of the game.

That gave Duke a 58-50 lead that Georgia Tech was not able to dent the rest of the way. And with just over six minutes to play and the Devils up 10, Singler was in the middle of another crucial sequence -- first he blocked a shot by Miller under the basket, then he ripped away the rebound. Back at the offensive end, Singler hit a 3-pointer from the right corner to stretch the lead to 13 and essentially clinch the win.

“It just wasn't his game tonight,” Krzyzewski said. “That's why him making that one play kind of made up for everything. It was the turning point of the game and for him to be able to do that after kind of having this weird game was huge. And he hit a big 3 for us, too.”

How was Singler able to bounce back from such a poor start?

“You’ve just got to stay in the game and focus on the task at hand,” he said. “The important thing was to get the win and we did that.”

Singler finished with five points -- breaking his streak of 12 straight double-figure scoring games., But he helped Duke to its 27th win of the season and a spot in the ACC Tournament semifinals.

“The ACC Tournament is full of great teams,” Singler said. “And the team that’s going to win it is one that’s going to play great defense and has prepared well.”