Georgia Tech erases 18-point deficit to beat Clemson in OT
WASHINGTON — Marcus Georges- Hunt helped Georgia Tech erase an 18- point secondhalf deficit to beat Clemson 88- 85 in overtime Wednesday in the second round of the ACC men’s basketball tournament, keeping the Yellow Jackets’ NCAA tournament hopes alive for at least another day.
Georgia Tech ( 19-13) faces fourth-ranked Virginia (24-6) in the quarterfinals today.
Georges- Hunt went 15- for-16 from the freethrow line and scored 28 points as the Yellow Jackets took advantage of the Tigers (17-14) when they went cold and couldn’t get a grip back on the game.
Adam Smith had 23 points and Nick Jacobs added 12 for the Yellow Jackets, who beat Virginia in their only meeting this season, 68-64 on Jan. 9 at home.
All-ACC first- teamer Jaron Blossomgame led Clemson with 22 points before fouling out, while Avry Holmes added 19.
The back- and- forth first half featured six lead changes but ended with Clemson up by nine points. The Tigers expanded their lead to 18 with 3-pointers by Gabe DeVoe, Holmes and Ty Hudson with 9:25 left.
Then it all fell apart. Georgia Tech put the ball in Georges-Hunt’s hands, and he made the most of it. The senior guard scored 22 points in the second half, including 13 on free throws.
Fouled on the floor with 12.9 seconds left, Georges- Hunt hit two shots to tie it at 80. Holmes missed his desperate attempt from the baseline at the buzzer as the game went to overtime.
When James White scored 18 seconds into overtime, it was Georgia Tech’s first lead since 23- 20 midway through the first half. The Yellow Jackets never gave up the lead again — Georges-Hunt hit two more free throws and DeVoe’s 3- point attempt hit the side of the backboard with 1.7 seconds left.
The Yellow Jackets have won six of their past seven games, all of which were decided by six or fewer points.
Duke 92, N.C. State 89 A bloodied Marshall Plumlee’s tiebreaking three-point play with 1:14 left helped 19th- ranked Duke overcome a secondhalf deficit against North Carolina State for the third time in three meetings, and the reigning NCAA champion Blue Devils edged the Wolfpack to advance.
It was a free- flowing, fast- paced, entertaining game with plenty of offense — and plenty of painful-looking collisions, including one involving Plumlee’s nose and, separately, N.C. State guard Anthony “Cat” Barber’s right arm.
One measure of just how much these teams scored at will was the fact that both had shooting percentages above 60 percent in the first half, which ended with the Wolfpack ( 16-17) ahead 53-50. In all, there were 18 ties and 21 lead changes.
Duke ( 23- 9) faces defending ACC tournament champion Notre Dame (20-10) in the quarterfinals. The Fighting Irish beat the Blue Devils in last year’s semifinals.
Pittsburgh 72, Syracuse 71 Cameron Johnson scored a career- high 24 points off the bench as the Pitt Panthers strengthened their résumé for an NCAA tournament bid by fending off a late run to beat Syracuse.
Pitt won’t have long to rest or reflect, facing top-seeded North Carolina (25-6) in a noon quarterfinal today.
Johnson and Ryan Luther helped Pitt’s bench outscore Syracuse’s 39-10 to finish a season sweep and deal a significant blow to the Orange’s hopes for making the NCAA field.
After the game was delayed 13 minutes because of shot- clock malfunctions, Pitt ( 2110) came back from a cold- shooting start and took over. Syracuse ( 1913) cut its deficit to one point, but Trevor Cooney missed a 3- pointer just before the buzzer.
Michael Gbinije led the Orange with 24 points.
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