A season that has been rife with disappointment, injuries, self-inflicted wounds reached an undeniable and unbelievable zenith Tuesday night.
Georgia Tech, losers of its past four games and owners of a No. 172 RPI ranking between noted powers Wofford and Oral Roberts, scored the biggest victory of coach Brian Gregory’s tenure, a 67-62 stunner over No. 7 Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. It surpasses Tech’s last-second win last season at then-No. 6 Miami, which took place a year Thursday.
“We needed it,” Gregory said. “There’s been some tough times and you wonder if the process is working. We’ve gone through a lot of stuff, but to come together like this is important for us, at this time of year in particular.”
On a night when 26,766 Orange fans assembled to enjoy a senior night win over the seemingly hapless Yellow Jackets, Tech turned the tables on proud Syracuse. The Jackets played about 37 minutes with poise and focus and three minutes with frantic effort to run out the clock as the lead, which had been as many as 13 in the second half, shrank to two points with 36 seconds to go. But guard Trae Golden ran a strong anchor leg, going 6-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final 35 seconds to hold off Syracuse’s charge.
“It was just great,” Golden said. “Great silence.”
In its first meeting with Syracuse as ACC members, Tech (14-16 overall, 5-12 ACC) did the things that it has repeatedly failed to do this season – take care of the ball, avoid lapses of focus and stick to its offensive game plan.
“It feels good,” center Daniel Miller, who delivered 15 points on 7-for-10 shooting with six blocks, four assists and no turnovers. “But just knowing, at the same time, we can always play this good (is) a little disappointing. But hopefully we can capitalize on this win and keep going.”
Syracuse (26-4, 13-4) lost for just the second time at home this season and the fourth time in the past three seasons. Oddly, the Orange’s other loss this season was to lowly Boston College, which gave Syracuse its first loss of the season Feb. 19. After starting the season 25-0, Syracuse has lost four of its past five.
Against Syracuse’s vaunted 2-3 zone defense, the Jackets patiently worked possessions, waiting for slivers to open up to pass the ball into the high post to Miller or fellow big men Robert Carter or Kammeon Holsey to collapse the zone and create openings either on the perimeter or the low post.
“Exactly how we wanted to do it,” Gregory said.
Perhaps the most telling statistic of Tech’s success against the Syracuse defense was its 18/9 assist/turnover ratio. In its first 16 ACC games, it had been .97. The Orange had limited ACC opponents to a 1.13 ratio.
When Syracuse turned up the heat in the second half and began full-court pressure –a look the Jackets hadn’t prepared for, given that the Orange rarely need to press – Tech repeatedly defeated the press, either patiently moving the ball upcourt or using throwaheads to score easy baskets. When Syracuse cut the lead to 50-41 with 8:17 to play – its first time within single digits since the 14:06 mark, Miller threw a home-run pass to Chris Bolden, who scored on a layup to return the lead to 11.
“You could tell they kept trying to do something else (defensively), whether it was ‘hurry trap’ the guard or doubling on the guy in the corner,” Miller said. “You could tell we were getting to ’em a little bit.”
Tech avoided the trap it has fallen into numerous times, which is to lose focus when taking leads, rush possessions on offense and give up easy baskets in transition. In perhaps the quintessential result of the season, Tech led Virginia 44-42 with 9:52 to play, but then allowed the Cavaliers to score 22 of the final 23 points of the game in a complete collapse.
“We’ve felt like that the whole season, a lot of games have come down to the last eight minutes,” Carter said. “Eight minutes and we end up losing. Either we blow the game right there and they’d go up by 12 or we end up losing by two or three points. … We feel like we can play with anybody. It’s just finishing. Tonight, we finished. That’s the difference.”
Tech benefited from Syracuse’s clunky free-throw shooting – the Orange were 7-for-16 from the line. Syracuse also couldn’t get untracked offensively aside from forward C.J. Fair’s 28-point night and guard Tyler Ennis’ 18 points. Guard Trevor Cooney was 3-for-12 from the field and 1-for-8 from 3-point range despite several open looks at the basket. He entered the game shooting 39.8 percent from 3-point range. Syracuse was also without forward Jerami Grant, who was held out with a back injury.
“People don’t want to hear it, and coaches don’t want to use it as an excuse, but Syracuse is not the same team without Grant,” Gregory said. “They’re just not.”
The Jackets, though, are hardly the team to take much pity on teams fighting injuries. They are down two players out for the season with injuries, a third dismissed from the team and Carter and Golden are returning from injuries. It has been among the inarguable factors in the team’s disappointing play in the ACC schedule.
“We’ve been knocked down quite a bit, sometimes of our own fault and sometimes out of things that we can’t control,” Gregory said. “So when you get a win like this, you can just feel that the guys maybe needed it. Again, you need confirmation sometimes and I think we got one tonight.”
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