For a change, Marcus Georges-Hunt wasn’t glum or hunched over at the final buzzer. Instead, the Georgia Tech forward celebrated with teammates and exchanged fives with the student section, the Yellow Jackets’ ritual after victories at McCamish Pavilion.
Georges-Hunt was even able to exit the game with 4:03 to play, such was the decisiveness of the Jackets’ 73-59 win over Wake Forest on Saturday. Tech claimed its second ACC win, and first at home, after a torrent of last-minute defeats.
“It felt great being able to come to the bench and cheer on my teammates and help ’em out,” Georges-Hunt said.
With the 1990 Final Four team in attendance, Tech (11-12, 2-9 ACC) didn’t quite channel Lethal Weapon 3 — the ’90 Jackets’ legendary trio of Kenny Anderson, Brian Oliver and Dennis Scott. But the Jackets elevated their offensive play to one of their highest points of the season and helped force Wake Forest (11-13, 3-8) into one of its poorer shooting games of the season.
“Very pleased with the way our guys played,” coach Brian Gregory said. “I thought over the last four games, we’ve played very well.”
The Jackets won only two of those games, but better that than the 0-7 stretch that preceded it in ACC play. The Jackets scored the first 11 points of the game and closed the half with a 5-0 run to end the half up 34-22 on a 3-pointer by guard Chris Bolden and a last-second transition basket by forward Charles Mitchell.
It was the first double-digit lead that the Jackets have taken into halftime in ACC play, and the Jackets opened the second half with an 13-2 run to take a 47-24 lead with 16:47 to play. In losing eight of its first nine ACC games, Tech often failed to close out the first half and start the second well, not to mention finish games effectively. Wake Forest, which won its previous two games, never got any closer than 14, the final margin.
Wake Forest made a sizable contribution to this happy afternoon for the Jackets, who honored the 1990 team at halftime. The Demon Deacons shot a season-low 29.7 percent from the field and after becoming the first team to outrebound the Jackets in the team’s first meeting (a 76-69 Deacons win in Winston-Salem, N.C., Jan. 10), lost that battle 41-33.
“Georgia Tech came out tonight and threw the first blow, threw the first several blows, and we weren’t able to recover,” Wake Forest coach Danny Manning said.
Georges-Hunt continued his strong play, with 13 points on eight shots, five rebounds and two assists. Bolden made four of seven 3-point tries, tying his career high for 3-pointers, and scored 14 while limiting Wake Forest guard Codi Miller-McIntyre (14.8 points per game) to seven points, none through the first 29 minutes of the game. Mitchell led with 15 points with six rebounds.
The Jackets were 9-for-20 from 3-point range, their most 3-pointers this season. They scored 22 fast-break points, a season high. Their 15 assists tied a season high. It was a result to savor for the Jackets, who have given commendable effort throughout the dismal run in ACC play.
“Seven (losses) in a row is tough, especially for young players, but the way we went in each and every day to practice, you would have never thought we’d lost seven games in a row,” Georges-Hunt said. “We just kept going at it, going at each other, pushing each other. It’s starting to pay off.”
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