ATLANTA – March is the time when a lot of things happen. Teams that fly under the radar all season long get national attention for winning a conference tournament or knocking off a team thought to be a clear favorite for it. Some teams gain a measure of redemption. Players who don’t play a major role on their team make big plays. And sometimes, a team that had a difficult regular season finally sees something on the bottom line as a reward for their efforts after not getting much of it all season.
Georgia Tech fits that last description well. The Yellow Jackets have had a difficult season, to say the least, as injuries have racked the team and they’ve lost a number of close games. Entering Thursday’s game against Clemson, they were 4-8 in games decided by five points or less. Their 11-18 record overall, including a 2-14 mark in ACC play, doesn’t tell anyone how good this team might be. On Thursday, they showed it, knocking off Clemson 86-81.
“We’ve worked the whole year, and we’ve been under these types of situations,” said sophomore guard Maurice Miller. “One thing I can say about this team is no matter what we go through, no matter what obstacles we have, we’re together. We’ve been like that the whole year. We feel like all we have is the people in this locker room. How we look at today is we were 0-0.”
In some ways, the game was like their entire season. Georgia Tech hasn’t been out of many games this season, with only seven of their losses being by double digits. The Yellow Jackets ran out to an early 10-2 lead, before Clemson’s press slowed them. They did much the same thing in the second half, scoring the first eight points before having to hold off the Tigers in the end, especially after they at one point opened up a 13-point lead.
This time, the Yellow Jackets pulled it out.
“They have played like that the whole year,” said head coach Paul Hewitt. “They have played very hard. We have done some good things.”
A big key for Georgia Tech is having everyone available, which didn’t happen until January, and at full strength or close to it. Save for D’Andre Bell, who was lost for the season in early practice, the Yellow Jackets now have their whole team after injuries led to Miller and Zach Peacock having to miss games, and the star on Thursday, Lewis Clinch, was academically ineligible for the first semester.
Clinch has had his share of adversity, but his career-high 32 points carried the team, while at times when Gani Lawal’s inside work (20 points, 14 rebounds) did as well. Clinch was 11-20 from the floor and 5-12 from long range.
“He’s been a big-time player for us for a long time,” said Hewitt. “He’s had some issues with injuries and missing some games. If he’s on the court consistently, this is what you see from him.”
Even though Miller has been playing since January 10, he has been wearing a specially fitted face mask. But Hewitt requested that it be removed on Wednesday, and right away it made a difference, as he said Miller “was a different player” without it on. All season long, Miller has struggled to shoot, but on Thursday he and Iman Shumpert, who’s had some of the growing pains freshmen point guards tend to have, ran the show capably with a combined 13 assists and four turnovers. Miller had eight of the assists.
Hewitt mentioned free throw shooting as a difference-maker in this game. The Yellow Jackets were 12-16 at the line, including 7-9 in the second half. They were 4-5 in the final minute from the line.
“In many games, other teams have made those defining plays,” Lawal said.
This time, it was Georgia Tech. They’ve battled all season long, never being an easy out despite all the adversity they have faced. You could see right from the beginning that if they were to lose this game, they were going to go down fighting. But for a change, the Yellow Jackets were the team that pulled it out late. All their hard work gets a bottom line reward at last, in the month of March. It happens at a time when a lot of things happen.
