NEWS
By Bud L. Ellis
Georgia Tech couldn’t hit the 3-point shot consistently. Georgia Tech’s top two players got into early foul trouble. Georgia Tech didn’t take care of the basketball.
Sound familiar? It should. Time and time again in the 2009-10 season, we’ve seen the Yellow Jackets struggle and stumble, a team vastly talented playing with inconsistency and no purpose.
It happened again on Sunday, and it ended Tech’s season. The Jackets fell behind by 14 points in the second half and a late 11-0 run wasn’t enough, Tech falling 75-66 to Ohio State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.
For Tech (23-13), it was a familiar script of not doing things right. Both Gani Lawal and Derrick Favors landed in early foul trouble. Tech hit just 20 percent of its 3-point attempts (4-for-20). The Jackets committed 21 turnovers.
It was enough to make an early eight-point lead evaporate. Ohio State led by 14 with just under 13 minutes to go. The Jackets made a final surge to pull within 65-61 with under two minutes left, but the Buckeyes put the game away from there.
Lawal led Tech with 11 points in just 21 minutes. Favors scored 10 points before fouling out. Glen Rice Jr. added 10 points.
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Monday, March 22, 2010 at 4:31 am by bud
Tags: Bradley Center, Derrick Favors, Gani Lawal, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Glen Rice Jr., NCAA Tournament, Ohio State
By Bud L. Ellis
Defense. Free-throw shooting. Toughness.
There never has been any doubt the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets possess the traits to be an elite team. But through an up-and-down season, one constantly wondered if Tech would put it together at the right time.
Well, if the Jackets’ surge last week to the ACC title game was any indication, Friday night provided validation. The Jackets hit 24-of-25 from the foul line, survived closing the game by not hitting a field goal in the final eight minutes, and posted their first NCAA Tournament victory since 2005, downing Oklahoma State 64-59 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.
The Jackets (23-12) now take on either Ohio State or UC-Santa Barbara in the second round on Sunday. A win there sends Tech to the Sweet 16.
“I thought we stayed really disciplined defensively,” Tech coach Paul Hewitt said after the game, in post-game comments posted to the Tech web site. “(We) didn’t foul too much, contested shots, and played a really solid basketball game against a very good team.”
Tech forced key turnovers late, hit its free throws and now moves into round two. After scoring the first six points of the game, Tech fell behind by as many as seven, but battled back to take the lead midway through the second half and hold on at the finish.
Gani Lawal led Tech with 14 points. Derrick Favors added 12 points with nine rebounds. Oklahoma State (22-11) shot 50 percent from the field, but Tech made the stops when it needed them most, closing the game with an 8-3 run.
“Our defense was great,” Lawal said.
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Friday, March 19, 2010 at 9:43 pm by bud
Tags: Bradley Center, Derrick Favors, Gani Lawal, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, NCAA Tournament, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Paul Hewitt, UC-Santa Barbara
By Bud L. Ellis
All season long, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets have teased fans with both the very good and the very bad.
It looks like the Jackets may just have saved their very best for when it counts the most.
Iman Shumpert scored a team-high 14 points, and stripped loose the ball from Greivis Vasquez with six seconds left Friday night, sparking the Jackets to a 69-64 victory over Maryland in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament quarterfinals.
The win sends Tech into the semifinals on Saturday against. N.C. State.
Tech got 13 points from Maurice Miller, and 11 points and 11 rebounds from Derrick Favors to advance. Tech, which has struggled all season long to find consistency, beat North Carolina in the opening round of the tournament Thursday night to likely punch its ticket to the NCAA tournament. That now seems like a mere formality after a win over No. 19-ranked Maryland.
Zach Peacock added 11 points for Tech, which survived 25 turnovers. Shumpert stripped the ball free from Vasquez with Tech up 67-64, and Tech hit two free throws in the final 3.7 seconds to advance to move into the conference final four.
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Saturday, March 13, 2010 at 11:23 pm by bud
Tags: Atlantic Coast Conference, Derrick Favors, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Greivis Vasquez, Iman Shumpert, Maryland, Maurice Miller, N.C. State, North Carolina, Zach Peacock
By Bud L. Ellis
Derrick Favors played like a senior and, likely in the process, removed the final lingering doubts surrounding Georgia Tech’s postseason status.
Favors scored a team-high 18 points in his first Atlantic Coast Conference tournament contest on Thursday, and the Yellow Jackets won their 20th game of the season with a 62-58 victory over defending national champion North Carolina in the tournament’s opening round at Greensboro Coliseum.
Favors came up big on a night where the Jackets (20-11) trailed by 13 points early, then roared back to win their third game against Carolina in three tries this season. Favors, the ACC freshman of the year, did his part to lead the way, pulling down nine rebounds and blocking five shots.
Tech likely has punched its ticket to the NCAA tournament with win No. 20. The Jackets advance to the ACC quarterfinals to face No. 19 Maryland on Friday night.
Gani Lawal scored 12 points, as Tech took control in the second half and salted this one away in the final minutes.
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Friday, March 12, 2010 at 6:52 pm by bud
Tags: Atlantic Coast Conference, Derrick Favors, Gani Lawal, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Greensboro Coliseum, Maryland, North Carolina
