Jan. 8, 2009
ATLANTA (AP) — Sylvia Crawley won the NCAA championship on a last-second shot as a player at North Carolina in 1994. As a coach, she was a winner in her first Atlantic Coast Conference game on Thursday night in dramatic fashion, too.
Mickel Picco scored on a lay-up with less than a second left in overtime to give Boston College a 65-64 victory over No. 22 Georgia Tech in the ACC opener for both teams.
Georgia Tech (12-3) had gone ahead on a driving basket by Jacqua Williams with 3.4 seconds remaining. But Picco, who had 14 points, got loose down court for a long pass against the press and scored just before the buzzer. The scoreboard read 0.3 seconds, but that wasn’t enough time for the Yellow Jackets to get off a shot.
“We’ve worked on that play a lot and never had a chance to use it in a game,” Picco said. “I just went long and I got a good pass. I knew I had time for three dribbles. I think that’s what I took. I don’t know for sure. But it felt great when the ball went in.”
Carolyn Swords had 18 points and 12 rebounds for Boston College (12-3) and Stefanie Murphy added 17 points and 11 rebounds for another double-double as Crawley got to celebrate an ACC victory as a coach after many as a player. Her number hangs from the rafters at North Carolina.
“We made a lot of huge plays at the end,” said Crawley, who came to Boston College after two seasons as coach at Ohio. “The players have worked very hard and are learning to win. I saw that light bulb turn on for them tonight. That is what’s so rewarding.”
Alex Montgomery had 22 points and nine rebounds to lead Georgia Tech, which had its eight-game winning streak snapped. The Yellow Jackets shot just 34.3% (24 of 70) from the floor, made only 13 of 23 free throws and gave up 21 second-chance points.
“We’re last in the league in defensive rebounding and we’ve got to get that fixed,” Georgia Tech coach MaChelle Joseph said. “When you miss 10 free throws and can’t rebound shots, you’re not going to win in the ACC.”
BC led by six points with 3:22 left in the second half, but went scoreless the rest of regulation. Deja Foster tied the game at 55 for Georgia Tech, hitting a pair of free throws with 27 second left after the Eagles, just 5-for-13 from the line in the game, missed the front end of two consecutive 1-and-1 opportunities.
Iasia Hemingway had 13 points, Williams 12 and Foster 10 for Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets were 3-for-13 on three-pointers, with Montgomery going 3-for-10.
Montgomery made a three-pointer to start the game, but then the Yellow Jackets went cold. Georgia Tech made just two of its next 15 shots, missing seven straight from behind the arc, and trailed 30-25 at halftime thanks to 27.8% shooting (10 of 36) from the floor and 50% (4-for-8) from the foul line.
