WRAL Sports Fan

ACC Tournament

Ga. Tech stuns Clemson, 86-81

By Jake Lloyd

Mar 12, 2009

ATLANTA  — Alade Aminu didn’t hesitate when asked the question: Can Georgia Tech, the No. 12 seed in the ACC Tournament, become the first conference team to win four games in four days and earn the league’s automatic NCAA Tournament berth?

“I mean, there’s no doubt in my mind that you could see us cutting down the nets (on Sunday),” Aminu said confidently. “I think that’s how everybody’s mindset is in this locker room.”

That is what Georgia Tech’s 86-81 upset of No. 5 seed Clemson (23-8) did for the Yellow Jackets (12-18). A team that won two conference games believes it can beat anybody.

Next up: No. 22 Florida State, the tournament’s fourth seed. The teams played just once in the regular season, with the Seminoles winning 62-58 in Tallahassee.

In that game Feb. 5, the Yellow Jackets led 31-25 at halftime and held the Seminoles to 30.9 percent shooting. But they didn’t shoot much better themselves, making two of 15 3-pointers, and couldn’t pull out the game down the stretch.

It was the story of their season until Thursday, considering they dropped nine of their 14 ACC losses by single digits.

Now, with one big victory, they are very confident that they can win the close ones.

“I look at film a lot and after our games and it’s just mind-boggling,” Gani Lawal said of his team’s record. “I’ve said it so many times: We just don’t make plays down the stretch. The 50-50 balls, we don’t come up with them.

“Tonight, we made big plays.”

It was actually a day game, but that didn’t diminish the big-play nature of what Georgia Tech did — and could, possibly, do again Friday afternoon against the Seminoles.

It all started with Lewis Clinch, who scored a career-high 32 points. From the get-go, the senior epitomized the Yellow Jackets’ attitude. There is no bubble for them, no NIT opportunity even.

“It’s win or go home, and we were able to do it today,” Clinch said.

Clinch was aggressive from the opening tip, scoring nine of the Yellow Jackets’ first 14 points and shooting whenever he saw a glimmer of daylight. He finished 11-of-20 from the field, including 5-of-12 from 3-point range.

Aminu, also a senior, said that he has noticed a change in Clinch’s body language in recent days. He wanted to finish a disappointing season, and his college career, strong. That carried over to the rest of the team.

“He’s definitely been stepping up as a leader, making sure everybody understands the importance of these wins and coming out with a whole lot of energy,” Aminu said. “And we’ve been able to follow him.”

The Yellow Jackets also used the interior play of Lawal, who had 20 points to go with 13 rebounds. When Clinch or a teammate was missing — which wasn’t very often, considering Georgia Tech shot 55.7 percent — Lawal was there to clean up the mess.

It was an inside-outside, complete, 40-minute performance that Georgia Tech will need if it’s going to continue its streak against the Seminoles and scare bubble teams around the country, who might just fear a Georgia Dome repeat.

(In last season’s SEC Tournament here, sub-.500 Georgia shocked everybody by stringing together four wins and snatching the automatic NCAA Tournament berth.)

On Thursday, the Yellow Jackets did a good job of breaking Clemson’s hectic full-court press and then taking good shots in the half court to score its most points since Dec. 20.

On Friday, they’ll go up against the ACC’s best defense: Florida State point guard Toney Douglas was named the league’s defensive player of the year and the Seminoles lead the conference in scoring defense (64.5 ppg allowed) and field-goal percentage defense (38.6 percent).

The Seminoles start three players 6-foot-9 or taller, including the ACC’s leading shot-blocker, Solomon Alabi.

“Toney Douglas is a phenomenal player … and, of course, they’re extremely long and athletic,” Lawal said. “So we just want to be prepared to attack them aggressively, draw fouls, not shy away from contact and try to contain Toney Douglas.”

It’s a difficult task for Georgia Tech — one more difficult than Thursday’s, considering Clemson is struggling and has now lost four of five games.

But it’s a challenge the Yellow Jackets believe they can handle. They just need to duplicate their first-round effort.

“It’s nothing that we haven’t expected,” Clinch said. “All year our coaches have done a tremendous job on scouting plans and what we need to do offensively and defensively.

“It’s really about us going out and executing.”