ATLANTA — Next stop Greensboro, N.C.
That's the place where all of Georgia Tech's NCAA tournament hopes and dreams likely reside, as the Yellow Jackets all but waved goodbye Saturday afternoon to a Big Dance bid after concluding their regular season with an anticlimactic loss.
Dropping their final game before postseason play begins with the ACC tournament in North Carolina on Thursday, the Yellow Jackets couldn't finish a furious 15-point rally and were beaten by fellow bubble hopper Virginia Tech, 88-82.
Despite the loss, Georgia Tech (19-11, 7-9) head coach Paul Hewitt believes this week will not be his team's last.
"I still think we have a very good shot (to reach the NCAA tournament), but obviously we've got to go to Greensboro and play well. We've got to get a couple of wins and see where it falls from there," Hewitt said. "They're not handing out bids (today) and that's how we have to look at it."
The Yellow Jackets retain a hold on a No. 7 seeding in the 12-team ACC, and will face the conference's 10th-ranked program.
Before conference play finished Saturday, both North Carolina and Virginia had a chance to be that 10-seed.
"I never thought we'd finish under .500 with this amount of talent on this team," junior forward Gani Lawal said. "I'd be lying to you if I said I wasn't disappointed."
While walking away with 18-point outing, Lawal's afternoon might most be remembered for a pair of fouls that at the time seemed to rile Hokies head coach Seth Greenberg.
The first came with 3:51 remaining in the first half, when the 6-foot-9 forward stepped up to set a hard pick for guard Iman Shumpert. Before Shumpert could step through, Lawal's momentum caused him to crash violently into Virginia Tech's Malcolm Delaney, sending the Hokies guard to the floor.
Arguing for a flagrant foul to be issued, Greenberg seemed to take exception with the officials who ruled the play a personal foul.
"Like people said, 'Well, it was chippy.' You know what? A lot's at stake and these (players) are prideful and they care and they want to win. It's emotional, you can't turn on the TV without someone having an opinion about your team. The (players) are human and this is a really hard time of the year," Greenberg said.
With 12:52 remaining in the second half, Lawal committed another hard foul when he couldn't slow down after chasing Hokies guard Manny Atkins from behind. Colliding with Atkins, Lawal drove him hard to the floor. Although he immediately helped Atkins to his feet, Lawal's efforts weren't enough to prevent referees from tacking flagrant status on that infraction.
"It was a chippy game, it was physical, but it was nothing that I'm not used to in ACC play," Lawal said.
That second foul came mere moments after Yellow Jackets forward Zachery Peacock was charged with a technical after bumping hard into a Virginia Tech player on the way to benches during a Georgia Tech timeout.
With the Hokies sinking three of their technical foul shots in that span and making a subsequent jumper, the Yellow Jackets watched a seven-point deficit — which had been closed by a Shumpert 3-pointer right before the timeout that brought about Peacock's bump — balloon quickly to 12.
While it may have been a physical contest, it was far from the most intense game senior guard D'Andre Bell said the Yellow Jackets have been in this season.
"It was very scrappy, a lot of cheap shots in there. That's why I was surprised as to how we reacted as if we had never gone through anything like that before," Bell said. "All the screaming and you saw the reaction.
"We were out of character."
Four minutes after those rather raucous game moments, the Hokies' lead swelled to 15. But that was when cooler Yellow Jackets heads finally prevailed.
In a five-minute span, Shumpert hit three 3s, and forward Derrick Favors knocked down a pair of free throws, threw down a hard dunk and swatted a Virginia Tech shot attempt to eventually bring the Yellow Jackets to within four. But made Hokies foul shots sealed Georgia Tech's doom in the final minute.
In the last 60 seconds, Delaney hit four free throws to round out his game-high 32 points. Virginia Tech's sharp shooter, he was 3-for-3 from beyond the 3-point arc in the first half.
"The constant dialogue is that you have to put good pressure on him, and when he gets the ball out of his hands, then try to deny him," Hewitt said of Delaney, who entered the game averaging 20.5 points. "He's talented and can make plays."
That's the place where all of Georgia Tech's NCAA tournament hopes and dreams likely reside, as the Yellow Jackets all but waved goodbye Saturday afternoon to a Big Dance bid after concluding their regular season with an anticlimactic loss.
Dropping their final game before postseason play begins with the ACC tournament in North Carolina on Thursday, the Yellow Jackets couldn't finish a furious 15-point rally and were beaten by fellow bubble hopper Virginia Tech, 88-82.
Despite the loss, Georgia Tech (19-11, 7-9) head coach Paul Hewitt believes this week will not be his team's last.
"I still think we have a very good shot (to reach the NCAA tournament), but obviously we've got to go to Greensboro and play well. We've got to get a couple of wins and see where it falls from there," Hewitt said. "They're not handing out bids (today) and that's how we have to look at it."
The Yellow Jackets retain a hold on a No. 7 seeding in the 12-team ACC, and will face the conference's 10th-ranked program.
Before conference play finished Saturday, both North Carolina and Virginia had a chance to be that 10-seed.
"I never thought we'd finish under .500 with this amount of talent on this team," junior forward Gani Lawal said. "I'd be lying to you if I said I wasn't disappointed."
While walking away with 18-point outing, Lawal's afternoon might most be remembered for a pair of fouls that at the time seemed to rile Hokies head coach Seth Greenberg.
The first came with 3:51 remaining in the first half, when the 6-foot-9 forward stepped up to set a hard pick for guard Iman Shumpert. Before Shumpert could step through, Lawal's momentum caused him to crash violently into Virginia Tech's Malcolm Delaney, sending the Hokies guard to the floor.
Arguing for a flagrant foul to be issued, Greenberg seemed to take exception with the officials who ruled the play a personal foul.
"Like people said, 'Well, it was chippy.' You know what? A lot's at stake and these (players) are prideful and they care and they want to win. It's emotional, you can't turn on the TV without someone having an opinion about your team. The (players) are human and this is a really hard time of the year," Greenberg said.
With 12:52 remaining in the second half, Lawal committed another hard foul when he couldn't slow down after chasing Hokies guard Manny Atkins from behind. Colliding with Atkins, Lawal drove him hard to the floor. Although he immediately helped Atkins to his feet, Lawal's efforts weren't enough to prevent referees from tacking flagrant status on that infraction.
"It was a chippy game, it was physical, but it was nothing that I'm not used to in ACC play," Lawal said.
That second foul came mere moments after Yellow Jackets forward Zachery Peacock was charged with a technical after bumping hard into a Virginia Tech player on the way to benches during a Georgia Tech timeout.
With the Hokies sinking three of their technical foul shots in that span and making a subsequent jumper, the Yellow Jackets watched a seven-point deficit — which had been closed by a Shumpert 3-pointer right before the timeout that brought about Peacock's bump — balloon quickly to 12.
While it may have been a physical contest, it was far from the most intense game senior guard D'Andre Bell said the Yellow Jackets have been in this season.
"It was very scrappy, a lot of cheap shots in there. That's why I was surprised as to how we reacted as if we had never gone through anything like that before," Bell said. "All the screaming and you saw the reaction.
"We were out of character."
Four minutes after those rather raucous game moments, the Hokies' lead swelled to 15. But that was when cooler Yellow Jackets heads finally prevailed.
In a five-minute span, Shumpert hit three 3s, and forward Derrick Favors knocked down a pair of free throws, threw down a hard dunk and swatted a Virginia Tech shot attempt to eventually bring the Yellow Jackets to within four. But made Hokies foul shots sealed Georgia Tech's doom in the final minute.
In the last 60 seconds, Delaney hit four free throws to round out his game-high 32 points. Virginia Tech's sharp shooter, he was 3-for-3 from beyond the 3-point arc in the first half.
"The constant dialogue is that you have to put good pressure on him, and when he gets the ball out of his hands, then try to deny him," Hewitt said of Delaney, who entered the game averaging 20.5 points. "He's talented and can make plays."