Tech falls to Florida State in ACC opener

By Carroll Rogers

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Georgia Tech team trying to reinvent itself after a last-place finish in the ACC last season had to settle for a little more of the same Sunday.

The 22nd-ranked Yellow Jackets forced overtime but lost to Florida State 66-59, the same team that knocked them out of the ACC tournament in the first round last year.

It was Derwin Kitchen who hit a buzzer-beater last March to ruin Tech's chances for a feel-good ending to a dismal 2-14 ACC season.

This time, Tech stopped Kitchen at the end of regulation, forcing him to stumble behind a screen for a turnover. And the Yellow Jackets opened up an early lead in overtime on Zachery Peacock's 3-pointer. But that would be Tech's only field goal in overtime.

The Yellow Jackets (8-2, 0-1 in ACC) had the same problems late they'd had all game – getting the ball inside – and the outside shots stopped falling too. The team shot a dismal 32.9 for the evening. Down by two with 30 seconds left, Gani Lawal found no daylight in the post and kicked the ball out. D'Andre Bell then drew only air on a 3-point attempt.

The Seminoles (10-2, 1-0) made 3 of 6 free throws in the final 30 seconds to hold off Tech.

"We played like we had something on our back against them and it didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to," said Peacock, who hit the jumper at the end of regulation to tie it and then scored five of his team-high 17 points in overtime. "But I would say we learned a lot from it."

There's not really a good way to ease into the ACC season, especially with three freshmen starting. Tech had 15 turnovers on Sunday and 13 of them were committed by freshmen. Derrick Favors, who was held under double-figures for the first time this year (8 points), had four turnovers. So did point guard Mfon Udofia.

Florida State's size on defense gave the Yellow Jackets fits and they lost all contact with their inside game for stretches. Lawal, who was averaging 16.3 points per game, was held to a season-low 4 on 1-for-7 shooting. Favors failed to get to the free throw line. Lawal only went twice.

"We went into the game feeling like we had to score in transition before they could set up defensively, but we did not do that," Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt said. "We shot early and quick in the first half. Second half, we did a better job moving the ball around and getting some open shots."

Late, though, Hewitt said "I wished we could've looked inside more. We had some chances."

Lawal and Favors took 15 shots combined. That's only two more than Udofia took; he was 4-for-13. Freshmen Brian Oliver and Glen Rice each shot 3-for-10 from the floor. Sometimes they were pulling the trigger because they couldn't find anywhere to go inside, with a pass or the dribble.

"They have long, big guys, so you think you had something, but it really wasn't there," Udofia said.

The Yellow Jackets lost their ACC opener for the fourth consecutive year. Now they have three weeks to think about it before their next conference game on Jan. 9 when Duke comes to town.

"We're a good basketball team," Lawal said. "We've got the ability to do great things this season. Look at North Carolina. They lost their first one to Boston College last year. They ended up winning the national championship. I don't want to jinx us and say we're going to win the national championship, but we have the talent to go deep."