March 11, 2005

Virginia Tech-Georgia Tech box score

Georgia Tech 73, Virginia Tech 54

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. -Cold shooting from the floor and a huge Georgia Tech run spanning the first and second half turned out to be the Virginia Tech Hokies' undoing as Tech fell to the Yellow Jackets 73-54 on Friday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament at the MCI Center.

Tech, seeded fourth going into the tournament, fell to 15-13 overall on the season. Georgia Tech, seeded fifth, improved to 18-10 and advanced to Saturday's semifinals to take on North Carolina, the top seed in the tournament.

"We picked a bad day not to play our best," Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. "We just didn't have the energy we needed for whatever reason. Maybe it was nerves. I don't know. Unfortunately, we didn't play a game that was reflective of the way we've played most of this season."

The Hokies stayed even with the Yellow Jackets for the first 15 minutes of the game, and led by as many as four, taking a 23-19 lead on a basket by Deron Washington with 5:12 left in the half. But Tech went cold from the floor the rest of the half as Georgia Tech closed the first 20 minutes with an 11-2 run to take a 30-25 lead at the break. In that span, the Hokies missed six of seven shots from the floor and turned the ball over twice.

Things only got worse in the second half for Tech. Georgia Tech scored the first nine points of the half and took a 39-25 lead on a 3-pointer by guard Jarrett Jack with 17:29 left in the game. Jack's 3-pointer capped a 20-2 run by the Yellow Jackets, spanning the first and second half, and the Hokies got no closer than 10 the rest of the game.

"That little spurt at the beginning of the second half killed us," Tech guard Jamon Gordon said. "We came out a little flat and they jumped on us like good teams are supposed to do. We didn't answer back."

For the game, the Hokies struggled from the floor against Georgia Tech's tenacious defense, hitting just 37.3 percent of their shots. Zabian Dowdell, Tech's leading scorer, hit just 1-of-7 from the floor and scored just six points - his lowest output this season - and none of the Hokies' starters hit better than 50 percent of their shots. Georgia Tech came into the game ranked first in the ACC in field-goal percentage defense, holding its opponents to 38.6 percent from the floor in the regular season.

Carlos Dixon led the Hokies with 12 points, hitting 5-of-11. Gordon added 11 points, but hit just 5-of-12 from the floor.

"I thought they [Georgia Tech] did a great job of defending the ball," Greenberg said. "Then in the second half, we didn't defend anybody."

The Yellow Jackets shot 65.4 percent in the second half and 54.9 percent for the game in pulling away. In their first meeting with the Hokies - on Jan. 22^nd in Atlanta - the Yellow Jackets played without star guard B.J. Elder and lost to the Hokies 70-69.

This time, Elder played and came up with a huge game. The senior guard scored a game-high 19 points, hitting 8-of-14 from the floor and helping the Yellow Jackets avenge their loss to the Hokies in Atlanta.

"He makes a huge difference," Dixon said. "He's physical. He'll post you up and he can shoot. He defends, too. He makes that team a lot better."

The Yellow Jackets also got 13 points each from Jack and Will Bynum.

The Hokies now await their postseason fate. Tech's NCAA Tournament chances appear tenuous, but the Hokies' chances of making the NIT field appear to be solid. A spot in the NIT would mark Tech's first postseason bid since the 1995-96 team went to the NCAA Tournament.

"It's like I told the guys," Greenberg said. "If we don't get in the NCAA Tournament and we can manage to win a couple of games in the NIT, at the end of next week, there'd be 24 or so teams left playing and we'd be one of them. Most everyone would have the balls packed away and we'd still be ballin'. Things could be worse.

"We finished 8-8 and in fourth place in the ACC. We're a long way from where we were a year ago. To get into the postseason would be huge for this program and we'd certainly embrace it."