ATLANTA-It was physical, and it was ugly. But in the waning moments of yesterday's game, the Georgia Tech men's basketball team found a way to knock off No. 6 Virginia in a 62-56 thriller at Alexander Memorial Coliseum. The loss is the Cavaliers' second consecutive road loss.
The Yellow Jackets (14-8, 6-5 ACC) used a 9-2 run in the last three minutes to seal the victory and a season sweep over the Cavaliers (16-6, 5-6). Georgia Tech freshman guard Halston Lane sparked the Jacket run by scoring five points, including a critical three-pointer, at the one-minute mark to put Georgia Tech up 58-54. Lane finished with 15 points.
"I'm a big believer in trying to win the last four minutes," Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt said. "We needed to develop that mentality: Give yourself a chance to win in those final minutes. Thankfully, [Lane] made that three-pointer. Today we left him out there and he made some big plays for us coming off the bench."
Both teams struggled to score from the field yesterday, much like the last time the two teams met on Jan. 9 at University Hall. In the first meeting this season, Georgia Tech pulled away with a 73-68 win despite shooting a lowly 42.4 percent from the field. Virginia, however, did not perform much better. The Cavaliers were plagued by poor shooting and finished with a 35.1 field-goal percentage. Yesterday, the Cavaliers and Yellow Jackets made 38.6 and 43.1 percent of their field goals, respectively.
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Virginia carried its sub-par shooting onto the charity stripe. The Cavaliers, who lead the ACC in free-throw percentage at 76 percent, went 9-for-18 at the line for only 50 percent. This atypical statistic combined with a failure to make necessary plays in the final minutes contributed greatly to the Virginia loss.
"We were aggressive, we played hard, we scratched and clawed, and we had a chance to win," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. "But we made bad decisions down the stretch and did not do a good job shooting free throws. We had to grab our chance, but we failed to do so."
The Cavaliers, who were down by four at the break, were able to take the lead for the first time less than two minutes into the second half. An alley-oop dunk by Adam Hall put Virginia up 30-29, but the game stayed close the rest of the way. Neither team could build a lead greater than four points until Georgia Tech took charge in the concluding minutes. After Lane's critical three-pointer, all Virginia could do was foul.
Lane's "three-pointer was very big at a crucial time," Gillen said. "It's tough to beat a very good team like Georgia Tech on the road. They are a team with a lot of weapons."
Virginia's defense was able to hold guard Shaun Fein, who scored 25 points in the last meeting, to seven points, and 7-footer Alvin Jones to only four points. Despite Virginia's defensive efforts, Lane still scored 15 points, point guard Tony Akins added 19 points and Jones pulled down 14 rebounds and blocked four shots.
"We played better defense than we did against Georgia Tech in Charlottesville," Gillen said. "We did a better job on Jones. But we are giving up a lot of height in there."
Virginia usually has four or more players score double digits, but this time only three players could do so. Sophomore guard Roger Mason Jr. led the Cavaliers with 17 points and three assists, while Hall added 12 points and six rebounds. Sophomore center Travis Watson, despite a slew of recent injuries, recorded his 11th double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
"Travis was in a lot of pain," Mason said. "But he was playing like a warrior and kept on fighting."
With two consecutive losses on the road, Duke arriving in Charlottesville to play on Wednesday and nothing but a monster of an ACC schedule left, the Cavaliers will have to do just that - keep on fighting.
"It's February basketball," Hewitt said. "Everybody's fighting and scratching. Things aren't pretty, but that's just the way things are in the ACC now"
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