Tech's revenge tour continues with a 70-69 buzzer beater at Wake Forest

WINSTON-SALEM, NC- Georgia Tech led for all but 17 seconds of the game, but it still took a possession arrow in the Jackets’ favor and a runner by Baye Ndongo on the baseline to pull off a 70-69 upset of Wake Forest on Tuesday night in LJVM Coliseum. The Jackets also avenged an early season home blowout loss to the Deacs 80-51 with the win moving to 7-12 in the ACC with the win with their third straight win and Wake fell to 10-9 losers of three straight.

Wake Forest took the lead with 18.2 seconds left on a Hunter Sallis bucket giving him 22 points on the night. Miles Kelly drove to the bucket in the middle of the lane but lost his footing, and a heldball was called with three seconds remaining with the possession arrow in Tech’s favor. Freshman Baye Ndongo took the inbound pass and instead of giving the ball to guard Naithan George who Wake tried to deny the pass to, drove to the hoop and hit a short floater for the game-winner.

“They tried to stop (Nait) and that was the wrong thing to do,” Ndongo said after the win. “They tried to deny Nait and that was the easier way and if they are going to give me that option I’m going to take it.”

The final inbound play was the typical one that the Jackets run throughout the game that typically has a big like Ndongo catch a guarded inbound pass and then hand it off to a guard coming around his body. The Deacs overplayed George and left a hole for Ndongo to drive right to the rim.

“That is our play. That is our stuff and we practice it all the time. That is our go-to play. We were ready for this team because they came into our house and humiliated us. We came into this ready for a dogfight today,” Ndongo said. “This has been a long season for us and to come back with three victories (in a row) means a lot to us.”

Ndongo ended the game with just nine points, but he had 11 rebounds and a steal.

Miles Kelly ended up as the leading scorer for the Jackets with 19 points on 7-11 shooting and 5-8 from three, but his two steals and several other defensive plays were big in the second half as well.

Freshman point guard George added 16 points but struggled with turnovers against the Deacs' defense committing seven of them with only three assists.

The X-factor for the Jackets was the play of forward Tafara Gapare who ended up with 11 points, six rebounds, two assists, and a block in 28 minutes. His defense and length were a problem for Wake throughout the night.

"As of late has really come on, Tafara Gapare has come on for us and given us an added guy with length and athleticism and he did really good things, especially on the defensive end. He helped us out tremendously," Stoudamire said.

Wake Forest guard Cam Hildreth put his team on his back in the second half scoring 13 of his 17 points during the stretch where Wake ground down the Jackets' lead from 16 points to eventually tying the game and later taking a one-point lead.

The Jackets held big man Andrew Carr to six points and just four rebounds as the Jackets won on the glass 34-25 for the game.

Tech head coach Damon Stoudamire was impressed with his team’s effort throughout the game.

“Proud of them and proud of the guys, when we played Wake last game they had a chance to go either way and they didn’t. I think the thing about playing against a team that beat by (29) points, you might lose the game, but you will come play hard. Last time they beat us from start to finish and we didn’t have a shot. Today as it went on and when they scored, I thought in my head, how many ups and downs we’ve had this year and when Miles caught that pass and slipped, I thought could it be another opportunity slipped away? These guys paid the price and I believe in stuff like this, we paid the price and we got it. We deserved the win, it is a tough place to play and Wake hasn’t lost at home all year and we put a loss on them, it says a lot about our guys."

The 29-point loss remained a sore spot that bothered Stoudamire at the time after the game and then was used to motivate his team all week leading up to the tipoff in Winston-Salem.

"I think it was motivating, I didn’t let them forget, I didn’t watch that game until this morning. At that time you can’t get anything from that game with the way we played. You just throw the game away and these guys locked in and stuck to the game plan. I told them it didn’t matter," Stoudamire said.

The Jackets only attempted two free throws in the game compared to 20 for the Deacs and Tech had 16 turnovers compared to just six for Wake Forest, but Stoudamire said his team played the right way most of the time and that was the difference to him in the outcome of the game.

“I think the biggest thing for me is seeing them connected. This is the time of year when teams play for things and try to keep building. For me, I’ve enjoyed watching the maturation of these guys and doing the things that happened for these guys. We are getting some payback for things that didn’t happen early and we getting results now," he said.

Georgia Tech opened the game with a 14-0 run before Wake Forest finally find the inside of the basket on a Hunter Sallis shot at the rim. Tech took a 14-point lead to the locker room 40-26 over the Deacs.

“It was huge, the way we started out the game. We hit a couple of shots, but most importantly we got stops defensively and that was huge for our confidence in the game and stayed with us through the final shot of the game,” Kelly said.

In the first half, Miles Kelly and Nait George combined for 22 poitns on 9-14 shooting and Kelly added 4-4 from three. Tech did have nine turnovers, but the Jacket had a 20-11 edge on the glass and outshot Wake 57.1 percent overall and 57.1 percent (8-14) from three compared to just 28.6 percent from the field for Wake and 2-10 from three. Sallis led the Deacs with nine points, but he needed nine shots to get there.

Miles Kelly opened the game with a pair of threes off second-chance looks and Steve Forbes burned his first timeout a minute and 37 seconds into the game, Kowacie Reeves and Tafara Gapare added threes as well to put Tech up 12-0 at the first media timeout with 15:56 remaining. Tech extended the lead to 14-0 before Wake scored the first bucket of the game on a point blank shot by Hunter Sallis. Tech maintained control through the second media timeout leading 21-7 with 11:49 remaining in the half thanks to another Kelly three. Tech extended the lead to 19, 26-7, but the Deacs used a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 26-14 leading to a Stoudamire timeout. Tech had the lead trimmed to 11 at the final media timeout of the half with 3:52 remaining 33-22 after a series of questionable calls including a non-call on a flagrant foul by Andrew Carr on Baye Ndongo. Tech held on to the lead and got it back up to 14 to lead 40-26 at the break thanks to a Kyle Sturdivant three.

Wake opened the second half with a 6-0 run after the teams exchanged buckets early to pull within 10, 42-32. Sallis was able to cut the Tech lead to single digits with a bucket 44-36 by the first media timeout with 15:49 remaining. Hildreth scored nine straight points to pull Wake within three, 50-47, but Tech answered back with a Gapare lob dunk off a George assist. Hildreth scored his 11th straight points for Wake leading to a Tech timeout with 10:01 left and the lead down to three for the Jackets 52-49. Carr pulled Wake within one, but Kelly was able to score quick points after a missed free throw by Sallis to put Tech back up 59-52 with 7:08 left. Tech led by six at the final media timeout with 3:59 remaining thanks to a Wake lob out of bounds. Kelly pushed the lead to eight with just over two minutes to play with a steal and layup, but Efton Reid hit a corner three to make it a five-point game with two minutes to play. Wake used free throws and some easy buckets around the rim to pull within one on a pair of Miller free throws with 37 seconds left in the game. Wake trapped Sturdivant in the corner and forced Tech to use their final timeout with 34.3 left in the game. Sturdivant turned the ball over under by the Wake basket on the next play and Sallis hit a go-ahead jumper with 18.8 left to put the Deacs up 69-68. Kelly slipped driving to the basket with 3.8 left but Tech won the jump ball on the possession arrow. Ndongo hit a game-winner with 0.4 left on the clock.

Georgia Tech ends regular season play with an 8 pm tip at Jones Paul Jones Arena facing Virginia on Saturday. The Jackets will bus from Charlottesville to Washington D.C. for the ACC Tournament after that game.