Feb. 21, 2007
ATLANTA (AP) -Javaris Crittenton scored 22 points and had nine assists and Thaddeus Young added 17 points to lead Georgia Tech to a 75-61 win Wednesday night over Wake Forest, keeping the Yellow Jackets’ hopes for an NCAA tourmament bid alive.
Tech (18-9, 6-7 Atlantic Coast Conference) won for the fifth time in six games.
Wake Forest (13-14, 4-10 ACC), which had a two-game winning streak end, was led by freshman Anthony Gurley, who came off the bench to score a career-high 24 points. Kyle Visser added 15 points for the Demon Deacons.
The Deacons overcame an early 17-point deficit to cut the margin to 56-52 on a 3-point basket by Jamie Skeen with 8:02 left. Tech, however, responded with a 9-0 run for a 65-52 lead on a basket by Young with 4:07 left, and Wake Forest never got closer than 11 points after that.
Tech led 36-22 at the half with Young scoring 11 points and Crittenton adding nine points, six rebounds and six assists. Gurley led Wake Forest with 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field for the half and finished with 8-of-11.
The Yellow Jackets’ biggest lead of the half was 17 at 36-19 on a 3-point basket by Crittenton with 1:11 left.
The Demon Deacons were only 3-of-12 (25 percent) from the free throw line in the opening 20 minutes and finished at 9-of-18 (50 percent).
Tech has three tough ACC games left – at No. 24 Virginia on Saturday, and at home against No. 5 North Carolina on March 1 and Boston College on March 4.
The Yellow Jackets lost at Wake Forest 85-75 on Jan. 30 before going on a four-game winning streak, then losing to No. 18 Duke 71-62 on Sunday.
