Two days after scoring one of its biggest wins of the season, Georgia Tech lacked the punch to take care of flailing N.C. State.
The Yellow Jackets suffered a loss damaging to their NCAA tournament chances, a 71-69 defeat to the Wolfpack Tuesday night at McCamish Pavilion.
Tech (16-12 overall, 7-8 ACC) nearly stole a win after trailing by 14 at the three-minute mark and nine with 36 seconds remaining. The rally, powered by two 3-pointers by guards Tadric Jackson and another by guard Josh Okogie in the final two minutes, along with shaky free-throw shooting by N.C. State, died at the buzzer. Down two points with 2.1 seconds remaining, forward Quinton Stephens inbounded the ball with a downcourt pass to center Ben Lammers, who caught the ball in midair and passed to Jackson on the wing, but his 3-pointer as time expired glanced off the rim.
Playing less than 48 hours after defeating Syracuse at McCamish, Tech was off its typical high-energy game for most of the 40 minutes. N.C. State won 13 offensive rebounds out of 34 available opportunities, winning loose balls and taking advantage of repeated instances in which the Jackets let rebounds escape their grasp.
After playing 40 minutes in one of the finest games of his career on Sunday, Lammers was not at his best, scoring a season-low six points on 1-for-9 shooting from the field to go with nine rebounds in 39 minutes. He came into the game averaging 15 points per game while making 53 percent of his field-goal attempts. A 76 percent free-throw shooter, he was 4-for-8 from the line.
The Jackets were 13-for-22 from the line, 59 percent. It was well below their season average of 68.9 percent.
Tech was led by Okogie, who scored a game-high 25 points on 11-for-17 shooting.
N.C. State (14-15, 4-12) came into the game having lost seven in a row and was playing its second game since the firing of coach Mark Gottfried was announced last Thursday. The Wolfpack earned a split with Tech after the Jackets won 86-76 in Raleigh, N.C., in January.
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