On Tuesday, Georgia Tech forward Marcus Georges-Hunt scored points only with his attire. The Yellow Jackets forward, out with a broken foot suffered the previous Tuesday, was attired in a sports coat, pink shirt and multicolor bowtie.
All Georges-Hunt, Tech’s leading scorer and team leader, could do in the game against Boston College was offer his support from the bench.
“I was happy for them; they were doing great,” Georges-Hunt said, “sticking together, making great decisions.”
Georges-Hunt was replaced in the starting lineup by forward Quinton Stephens. Freshman guard Tadric Jackson took on the scoring load that Georges-Hunt had carried, scoring 16 points on 15 shots. Jackson often was given the ball late in the game in half-court situations and responded with three baskets, including a 3-pointer, in the final five minutes. He also scored a go-ahead basket with 28 seconds left that was eclipsed by Boston College guard Olivier Hanlan’s game-winner.
“He made a great play,” Georges-Hunt said of Jackson. “Being a freshman, he put a lot on his shoulders to make that play. He did a good job, kept his composure, didn’t put up a bad shot or rush a bad shot.”
Said coach Brian Gregory, “He didn’t shy away from the big moment today, and I thought that was a big step for him.”
At it again: Hanlan continued his torment of the Jackets with a game-high 25 points, five assists against one turnover, eight rebounds and 8-for-8 shooting from the free-throw line. The first-team All-ACC choice scored six points in the final 90 seconds as the Eagles rallied from six points down in that time span.
Including his 41-point torching of the Jackets in a first-round ACC game in 2013, Hanlan has averaged 23 points and 56.3 percent shooting from the field in seven career games against Tech and 17.4 points and 45.7 percent shooting against the rest of Boston College’s opponents.
Tough game: Stephens came back from an abdominal strain that kept him out of the final regular-season game to start in place of Georges-Hunt. However, he endured a forgettable afternoon of shooting — he was 1-for-12 from the field and 0-for-9 from 3-point range.
Stephens entered the game making 32.7 percent of his 3-point tries. It was a long way from his performance in the first game of the season, when he was 6-for-8 against Georgia.
“He had nine pretty wide-open 3’s,” Gregory said.
Stephens said he wouldn’t blame anything on the injury.
“I’m still confident,” he said. “That doesn’t bother me. It (expletive) that we lost, but any other game, I’d shoot the same (shots).”
Etc.: Big men Demarco Cox, Charles Mitchell and Robert Sampson contributed a combined 35 points and 27 rebounds, as Tech followed its game plan to get the ball into the post. Gregory said it was the best game that the three had played collectively this season. It was the final game for Cox and Sampson. … Guard Chris Bolden, whose six-game suspension for violating the Tech student-athlete conduct policy was completed with Tuesday's game, did not travel to Greensboro with the team. Had the Jackets won against Boston College, he would not have played in the second-round game.
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