Georgia Tech played the best defensive half of its season Thursday night. The problem was that the Yellow Jackets also played their least productive offensive game in several decades.
A familiar plot played out late Thursday night at Philips Arena in Tech's ACC tournament first-round loss to Miami. The Jackets gave all they had and made their opponent work for baskets but could produce few themselves. The result was a 54-36 loss to the Hurricanes.
Said center Daniel Miller, "You've got to be able to score to win."
A team without a dependable scorer and with its best player suspended, playing a slow tempo against a tough defense on a poor shooting night with 20 turnovers and errant foul shooting on its handful of attempts, Tech scored the fewest points in an ACC tournament game in the shot-clock era. It was Tech's lowest-scoring game since a 38-36 loss to Auburn in 1961.
"It wasn't even like we were taking tough shots," said guard Jason Morris, who scored five points on 2-for-12 shooting one game after scoring a career-high 22. "We were taking wide-open shots. There was a lid on that basket, to say the least. That's what it felt like."
It was also Tech's third game under 40 points this season, all at Philips Arena. The Jackets are only too ready to move into McCamish Pavilion after their one-season stay at Philips, where they recorded a 3-8 record.
Picked to finish 10th in the ACC after losing guard Iman Shumpert to the NBA and forward Brian Oliver to transfer, the Jackets finish at 11-20 in Gregory's first season. Tech last lost 20 games in 1980-81, when the Jackets went 4-23 in their second year in the ACC and subsequently replaced Dwane Morrison with Bobby Cremins. It's only the fifth 20-loss season in school history.
Miami (19-11) will play No. 3 seed Florida State Friday at 9 p.m. The Hurricanes likely need to upset the Seminoles and perhaps even reach the championship game to earn a berth in the NCAA tournament field.
The game began hopefully for Tech, which had won two of its past three and was showing its best form of the season with a more unified defense and a better flow on offense. The Jackets scored the first five points of the game and was playing dialed-in defense. Center Daniel Miller was frustrating Miami center Reggie Johnson. Forward Kammeon Holsey was doing the same against Kenny Kadji, the Hurricanes' versatile forward. Johnson and Kadji, who came into the game averaging a combined 23.4 points per game, had one point at halftime on 0-for-8 shooting.
Tech was challenging shots and limiting offensive rebounds. Miami scored 19 points, its second-lowest first-half output of the season. Gregory called it Tech's best defensive half of the season.
"Defensively, we were locked in that first half," Morris said.
Yet, for all of its labor, Tech led just 20-19 at halftime because the Jackets shot 30.8 percent from the field and turned the ball over eight times.
Tech continued its push into the second half and took a 27-24 lead on two Brandon Reed free throws with 14:25 to go. An upset looked like a possibility in the late session at Philips. But in reality, the Jackets were beginning to crack.
Two Miami free throws cut the lead to one point and then Miami guard Rion Brown, the son of former Tech star Tico Brown, swished a 3-pointer to give the Hurricanes a 29-27 lead. On the next possession, Miller drove against Johnson. Miller put the ball in the basket and the whistle blew. Miller expected a blocking foul against Johnson, which would have been his fourth foul with more than 11 minutes to play.
Instead, Miller was hit with a charge. No basket. Brown got free for another 3-pointer from virtually the same spot on the left wing. On this night, with points at a premium, the Hurricanes were running in the clear with a five-point lead.
"Those six points were big," Gregory said. "When we're not scoring, those points, they count as triple."
The Hurricanes were piling up points in what would become an 18-0 surge that catapulted them to a 42-27 lead. Tech went six minutes without a point. Of the 18 points, 11 were the product of turnovers.
Said Gregory, "It's hard to keep digging in on the defensive end when you struggle to make any baskets."
The rest was perfunctory. By about 11:30 p.m., Gregory's first season was complete.
"I think, again, you saw some glimpses of how good we can be in some certain areas, and you also saw some holes that need to be filled and some improvements that need to be made," Gregory said.
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