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Miller's double-double leads Georgia Tech past Delaware State
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DULUTH - Sophomores Daniel Miller and Kammeon Holsey are flourishing as the key inside players for Georgia Tech in first-year coach Brian Gregory's offense.

Miller had his first career double-double and Holsey had a career-high 21 points to lead Georgia Tech to a 70-52 win over Delaware State on Monday night.

Miller (6-11, 258) matched his career high with 14 points and set new highs with 15 rebounds and six assists. Holsey made 9 of 10 shots from the field.

"To be honest with you it's new, feeding the post with those guys," Gregory said before adding he plans to keep the two in prominent roles, no matter what defense the Yellow Jackets face.

"We want to do that a lot, man or zone," Gregory said.

Jason Morris had 11 points for Georgia Tech (2-0), which made 29 of 55 shots (52.7 percent) and has shot better than 50 percent in each of its first two games.

The Yellow Jackets never made 50 percent of their shots from the field in a game while finishing 13-18 under former coach Paul Hewitt last season.

One early lesson for Gregory's players is that higher-percentage shots can be found closer to the basket.

"Coach Gregory expects the offense to run through the inside," Holsey said. "It's just a whole different story from last year."

Tahj Tate and Brandon Oliver each had 14 points for Delaware State (1-1).

Miller has scored in double figures in two straight games - one shy of his 2010-11 total. He had 12 points and 7 rebounds in the opening win over Florida A&M.

Miller said his offseason focus was "just become an inside presence."

"Last year, it was all defense," Miller said. "This year they wanted to work me into the offense. They have some set plays for me, like the first play."

Miller scored the first basket of the game.

Miller, a center, was the only Georgia Tech player to start every game last season but often battled foul problems. He averaged only 4.0 points.

"I'm just so happy about Daniel," Holsey said. "He has improved a lot."

Delaware State coach Greg Jackson said his team couldn't match up with Miller and Holsey (6-8, 226).

"Their players were so big," Jackson said. "Talent means a lot, but they were always right over top of us. Hopefully, we'll be that big one day, but right now we just have to work with what we have. They did an excellent job of exploiting our weakness and got the ball inside."

Amere May had 10 points for Delaware State, which made only 5 of 20 3-pointers.

Georgia Tech led 30-23 at halftime and led by only six points at 52-46 with about 9 minutes remaining.

"I thought we came in with a great game plan," Jackson said. "I thought we kept them off-balance throughout most of the game. They wore us down toward the end of the second half. We'll have a very good basketball team in time.

"I felt that Tech did a better job down the stretch of winning this basketball game."

Delaware State fell to 0-14 against ACC teams. The Hornets were 0-2 against ACC teams last season, including a 72-70 loss to North Carolina State and a 76-41 loss to Clemson.

Delaware State, which returns three starters from a 9-21 team, will return to the state on Dec. 30 to play at Georgia.

Georgia Tech was playing its second of five home games at the Gwinnett Arena about 30 minutes north of its campus.

The Yellow Jackets' home ACC games will be played at Philips Arena this season while its campus facility is being rebuilt.

Attendance was 1,079.

 

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