The opponent wore orange and played a 2-3 zone, but that was where the similarities ended.
Four days after its road upset over No. 7 Syracuse, Georgia Tech closed up the regular season with a 62-51 win over Virginia Tech Saturday at McCamish Pavilion.
With the win, Georgia Tech improved to 15-16 overall and 6-12 in the ACC. Coupled with Miami’s win over Wake Forest Saturday, the Yellow Jackets earned the No. 11 seed in the ACC tournament and will play Boston College in an 11-14 game Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Greensboro, N.C.
The two teams met last year in the first round of the tournament, with Boston College claiming an 84-64 win over the Jackets. Georgia Tech swept the Eagles this season, including a 74-71 win on Feb. 12 in which Marcus Georges-Hunt won it with a last-second 3-pointer.
Georgia Tech began to assert control over a clunky game by closing the first half on a 13-4 run to overtake the Hokies and go into halftime leading 29-22. Center Daniel Miller, honored before the game in senior-day festivities, scored the final four points of the run, including a lay-in on a dish from Trae Golden as time expired.
A 12-2 run near the start of the second half, this one fueled by five points from Golden and four from forward Robert Carter, pushed the lead to 44-28 and began to extinguish the Hokies’ hopes. The lead grew to as many as 19.
With the lead safe in the final minute, coach Brian Gregory was able to remove seniors Miller, Golden and Kammeon Holsey, who were rewarded with a standing ovation in their final regular-season home games at McCamish.
Carter continued his strong play with a team-high 16 points on 7-for-9 shooting. Miller and Golden added 14 each. Miller also secured a game-high nine rebounds and Golden had eight assists, his Georgia Tech high.
Virginia Tech (9-21, 2-16) played with seven scholarship players will be the No. 15 seed and will play No. 10 seed Miami. Hokies forward Joey van Zegeren scored a career-high 21 points to lead all scorers.
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