Dustin Ware 3-pointer gives Georgia second win in a row over Tech

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By Carroll Rogers

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thriving on close games this season, and 3-pointers Tuesday night, Georgia watched both converge in a moment of perfection with 18 seconds left at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.

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Georgia Bulldogs forward Trey Thompkins (33) celebrates after Georgia defeated Georgia Tech 73-72 in a college basketball game Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010, in Atlanta.

David Goldman, AP Georgia Bulldogs forward Trey Thompkins (33) celebrates after Georgia defeated Georgia Tech 73-72 in a college basketball game Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010, in Atlanta.

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Gerald Robinson drove the lane and found junior Dustin Ware open on the right wing for a 3-pointer, the winning shot in a 73-72 win over Georgia Tech.

Ware was 7-for-9 from 3-point range in the game on his way to 21 points, one shy of his career high. He was just continuing the work he had done at a shootaround practice in Alexander Memorial Coliseum on Monday.

“I was able to keep it rolling,” Ware said.

The play transpired was just as Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt had feared. He had said coming in that Robinson, a Tennessee State transfer, gave Georgia a playmaker the Bulldogs hadn’t had in the past. He cited the pass Robinson made to assist the winning basket for Georgia against Saint Louis as an example.

On Tuesday night, he watched it live, as Robinson drove into a crowd and kicked out to Ware to give Georgia a 73-70 lead.

“Just coming off a screen-and-roll and taking what the defense gave me,” Robinson said.

Tech answered with a Glen Rice Jr. layup to close Georgia’s lead to 73-72 with 6.8 seconds left. But with 2.8 seconds left Brian Oliver launched a baseball pass the length of the court, hoping center Daniel Miller might get a tip up, but like many of his shots (he was 3-for-15) the pass was errant.

“It was supposed to be setup for someone to get the ball at halfcourt,” Oliver said. “My thought was to throw it Daniel because he's a big guy, and maybe they'd hit him too hard and a foul would be called. It was a bad decision.”

Georgia walked off winners in this series for the second year in a row, and is now 2-0 against Tech with Mark Fox as coach. It was only the second time the road team won in 14 meetings since the series went home-and-home in 1995-96.

After going 0-11 on opponents’ home courts a year ago, the Bulldogs are now 2-0.

“That’s certainly a big basket for our program,” Fox said of Ware’s shot.

Trey Thompkins added 21 points for Georgia. Iman Shumpert led Tech (4-4) with 18 points, but had to sit much of the stretch run with cramps.

As big a rivalry game as this was, in an arena awash in yellow, the Bulldogs (6-2) did what they have done all season. They hung around.

They stayed close when Thompkins spent the first half in traffic, Travis Leslie in foul trouble and the Bulldogs trying to figure out how to get their offense moving against the Jackets’ 2-3 zone.

Georgia finally found an opening with a 3-pointer to take their first lead of the game with 12:11 to go and didn’t stop until they had made four more 3-pointers in a row to make a game of it.

Georgia got two 3-pointers from super-sub Sherrard Brantley, two from Ware and one from Thompkins.

Georgia played like the more poised, mature team coming down the stretch.

Tech went up 70-65 with 2:14 left after Moe Miller made a nasty crossover dribble to convert and then followed it up with a pass to Miller for a dunk. But Georgia came right back with a 3-point play from Thompkins and a transition dunk by Robinson.

“The fact that we’ve been in a lot of close games, that’s good experience for us,” Fox said. “It certainly paid dividends tonight late in the game we didn’t panic, we finished the game with a timeout, never had to burn it, and I think we played like a mature group.”

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