February 12, 2021

Clemson Upends Tech on Buzzer-Beating 3

Box Score (.pdf) | Full gamebook (.pdf) | Multimedia | Photo Gallery | Postgame Notes

CLEMSON, S.C. – Clemson’s Nick Honor banked in a desperation 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds remaining to hand Georgia Tech men’s basketball a heartbreaking 74-72 defeat on Friday evening at Littlejohn Coliseum.

Georgia Tech led 72-71 with eight seconds left and senior Jose Alvarado, an 87.8-percent free-throw shooter, at the foul line for two free throws. Alvarado uncharacteristically missed both shots.

The rebound on the second miss was corralled by Clemson’s Jonathan Baehre, who passed ahead to Honor. Honor pulled up from 25 feet and heaved a shot towards the basket, which slammed off the backboard and through the net to give the Tigers a two-point lead with barely more than a second left on the clock. Alvarado’s three-quarters-court attempt at the buzzer was off-line, and Clemson escaped with the improbable win.

Georgia Tech (9-8, 5-6 ACC), which led by six points at halftime but trailed by three early in the second period, took a 64-61 advantage with 4:05 to go on a 3-point play by Moses Wright and didn’t relinquish the lead until Honor’s game-winner.

Playing its second game in 48 hours, Tech shot 52 percent from the field and limited Clemson (13-5, 7-5 ACC) to 46.2 percent overall shooting from the field. However, Clemson made half its 3-point attempts (9-of-18) while the Jackets were just 5-of-19 from long-distance (26.3 percent).

Four Yellow Jackets scored in double-figures, led by Michael Devoe’s 23 points on 7-of-12 field goals and 8-of-8 free throws. Wright added 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field, while Bubba Parham and Jordan Usher chipped in with 12 apiece.

Tech returns home for its third game in five days when it hosts Pitt on Sunday. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. at McCamish Pavilion and the game will be televised on the ACC Network.

Moses Wright hit six of seven shots and scored 15 points against the Tigers.

Post-Game Notes

TEAM NOTES

Georgia Tech remained winless on the road in the ACC (0-5) after splitting its 10 road games in 2019-20.
Tech led the Clemson game for 30:33, after leading Virginia for 23:51 on Wednesday night.
Tech shot better than 50 percent (52.0) from the floor for the seventh time this season, but lost the game for the first time.
Tech shot 54.8 percent from the floor in two games against Clemson this season (57.4 percent on Jan. 20, 52 percent Friday night). The difference was in three-point shooting – Tech made 16-of-27 in its Jan. 20 home win, but just 5-of-19 Friday night at Littlejohn.
Tech’s 15 points from the free throw line were its most in five games (19 on Jan. 30 vs. Florida State). The Jackets had been averaging just 8.2 free throws per game in ACC play this season.
Tech has hit just 9-of-40 three-point tries in its last two games, but still have connected on 37.5 percent for the season in ACC games.
For the 14th time in its last 15 games, Tech won the turnover battle (13 to Clemson’s 16), and the Yellow Jackets have a plus-4.4 turnover margin in conference play, plus-4.3 in all games. Both rank No. 1 in the ACC.
Tech scored 21 points from Clemson’s 16 turnovers and had 10 fast break points.
Since going to its smaller lineup in the season’s third game, Tech has had just 38 shots blocked in its last 15 games (2.53 per game), 14 of those by Virginia in two meetings. The Yellow Jackets had 13 shots blocked in their two season-opening losses.
Tech collected nine steals against Clemson and is averaging an ACC-high 9.0 in conference games. The Jackets are averaging 8.9 in all games, which ranks No. 2.
Tech had at least one player go the full 40 minutes in six straight games before Friday night. Alvarado has done so four times, Moses Wright twice, Michael Devoe and Bubba Parham once each. Prior to that, no one played the full 40 this season.