Georgia Tech’s first ACC win is a big one

With seven seconds left in a tie game Saturday, Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt told freshman Iman Shumpert: “This is what you want. Do what you do.”

The 6-foot-5 point guard took the inbounds pass, dribbled behind his back at midcourt to free himself and crossed over to the right elbow. Elevating over 6-2 Jeff Teague, Shumpert drained a 16-footer with one second to go.

Zachery Peacock intercepted a subsequent pass, and the Yellow Jackets had upset No. 6 Wake Forest 76-74 to earn their first ACC victory. Students rushed the court for the second time in 10 days. They did it Jan. 22 following the women’s team’s upset of then-No. 2 North Carolina.

When Hewitt was recruiting Shumpert, the freshman recalled, “he told me at the end of the game, the ball’s in your hands, you get to call it, you get to make decisions, and he said he’s going to live with it. He’s always prided himself on having a big point guard.

“He had confidence in me, my teammates had confidence in me and I knocked it down,” Shumpert said.

Teague, the ACC’s second-leading scorer, recovered from Shumpert’s moves to contest the shot.

“I actually touched his elbow, and he still made it,” Teague said. “It was an impressive shot.”

The Jackets (10-10, 1-6 ACC) played easily their best game of the season.

They moved the ball crisply and got it inside to Gani Lawal (game-high 25 points, 10 rebounds). They were relentless on the glass (44-35 rebounding edge). They shot 77 percent from the free-throw line (23-of-30). They protected the basket (10 blocks, including six by Alade Aminu).

And they cut down on their turnovers, committing only six in the second half for a total of 15.

“The difference between this game and the others is that we made free throws and kept our turnovers down,” Hewitt said. “When we do that, I think you’ll see some good basketball out of this group.”

Instead of crumbling down the stretch and losing another close one, the Jackets finished strong.

Wake was leading 74-70 when Shumpert whipped a pass to Aminu for a layup with 1:48 left.

Teague missed the front end of a one-and-one. After Lewis Clinch missed a jumper, the Demon Deacons had a chance to put it away. But defensive whiz Nick Foreman kept the ball away from Teague and Wake Forest committed a 35-second violation.

Shumpert, curling around Peacock and taking a handoff, found his favorite spot — the right elbow — and tied the score with 19 seconds left.

After calling a timeout, Wake tried to find Teague again, but Foreman blanketed him. Harvey Hale passed low to James Johnson, and the ball bounced out of bounds, setting up Shumpert’s heroics.

Wake (17-2, 4-2) lost to the ACC’s only winless team three days after beating No. 1 Duke.

“There are no upsets in this league,” coach Dino Gaudio said. “I don’t care where you are playing, this is the best league in the country. And we had the luxury of a week off before Duke, and we had the luxury of a week off before [beating] North Carolina, and Georgia Tech had, what, six days off? Timing in these games is so important; don’t think that it’s not. But Georgia Tech deserved to win.”

Al-Farouq Aminu led Wake with 17 points, 11 rebounds and five steals, Teague scored 16, and James Johnson added 13.

Lawal paced the Jackets, making 7 of 10 from the field and 11 of 14 from the line. Clinch scored 15 of his 19 in the first half, helping Tech overcome an early 10-point deficit to trail 43-41 at the break.

Alade Aminu, Al-Farouq’s brother, had 10 points and 13 rebounds to go with his career-high six blocks. Shumpert finished with nine points, and Moe Miller added five points and five assists.

It was the Jackets’ first victory over a Top-10 team since they beat No. 8 North Carolina on March 1, 2007.

Lawal said changing the pregame routine might have helped end Tech’s five-game losing streak.

At the suggestion of D’Andre Bell, the Jackets whooped it up in the elevator ride down to the floor.

Huddling at midcourt before tipoff, they jumped in unison. There were smiles all around. These Jackets were loose.

“We wanted to come out with a little more energy, get the morale going, get everybody’s spirits up,” Lawal said. “A couple of times we’ve come out kind of normal, kind of mundane.

“We were just really amped up,” Lawal added.

Tech visits Florida State at 7 p.m. Thursday.