Demon Deacons Outlast Yellow Jackets In 2 OTs
Published: Mar 9, 2007
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TAMPA - Two of the ACC's youngest teams did a lot of growing up late Thursday night - and very early Friday morning - as Wake Forest and Georgia Tech finished the ACC Tournament's day of the underdog with a double-overtime classic at the Forum.
And last year's ultimate underdog success story wasn't about to be left out of the second-round party.
No. 11 seed Wake Forest, which scrapped its way into the 2006 semifinals as a No. 12 seed, made it 4-for-4 for lower-seeded teams Thursday with a 114-112 victory against sixth-seeded Georgia Tech in the first-round finale.
As many freshmen as the Demon Deacons play - three are in the starting lineup - it was a sophomore, guard Harvey Hale, who made the shots that meant the most against the NCAA Tournament bubble-sitting Yellow Jackets (20-11).
Hale's fall-away 3-pointer with 27 seconds left gave the Demon Deacons (15-15) a 114-111 lead. Hale scored 22 points, all in the second half and overtime, and was 5-for-6 from 3-point range.
And tonight, with a second-round game against No. 3 seed Virginia Tech, Wake Forest finds itself in position to try to duplicate its remarkable run of '06.
Last year, victories against Florida State and N.C. State propelled the Deacons into the tournament semifinals, where they fell to eventual champion Duke. But that run was good enough to help Wake extend its streak of consecutive seasons in either the NCAA Tournament or the NIT to 16, the longest current streak in the ACC.
The Jackets, meanwhile, must place their NCAA Tournament fate in the hands of the selection committee. Winners of seven of their final nine regular-season games, Georgia Tech rode a 16-1 home record to this point and, with an RPI ranking of 34, are firmly on the bubble.
The Yellow Jackets got 30 points from freshman Thaddeus Young, 23 in the second half. Young's personal 11-point spree early in the second half seemed to give the Jackets control, but a barrage of 3-pointers - begun by L.D. Williams with two in a row to cut the Tech lead to 49-48 and extended by senior Michael Drum with three in two minutes - made it a game.
The Deacons shot 69.6 (16-for-23) percent from three-point range, including 13-for-18 in the second half and OT.
The overtime periods were as nip-and-tuck as the first 40 minutes. It came down, ultimately, to a 14-foot attempt by Georgia Tech junior Anthony Morrow (20 points) as time expired.
