After Virginia Tech lost to Clemson moments before tip-off, BC was playing for an outside shot at the top seed in the ACC tournament (needing a North Carolina loss to Duke later that afternoon). But a lackluster, 74-60 loss to the Yellow Jackets – combined with a UNC victory – left the Eagles in fourth place at the end of the day and one win shy of 20 for the season.
Dudley reached the milestone, which only five BC players had reached before him, with 15:06 left in the second half when he drew a foul and banked home a close leaner. Dudley’s 2,001st point was his 10th of the game, but it would also be his last. The 6’7” captain, a frontrunner to be named ACC Player of the Year and BC’s leading scorer (19.6 ppg), was stifled by Georgia’s Tech aggressive defense and hit just three field goals in six attempts.
The Yellow Jackets pressed the Eagles all afternoon, forcing them into 20 turnovers. Unable to set up a regular half-court offense, BC managed just 35 shot attempts (Georgia Tech hit 31), making its 54% shooting performance seem less than impressive. An energized Ramblin’ Wreck squad, desperately seeking the NCAA Tournament Committee’s approval, turned four BC mistakes into an early, 15-0 run and never looked back thereafter.
Having been idle for a full week after beating Clemson last Saturday, the Eagles’ rust was evident in the first half. BC played passively on the offensive end and Georgia Tech built a fortress around the basket to prevent penetration, essentially taking away the Eagles’ bread and butter.
Early on, Tech gave them the perimeter, but the Eagles wouldn’t take it. BC entered Sunday as the second-worst three-point shooting team in the ACC. Instead of trying to reverse their fortunes from behind the arc, the Eagles tried unsuccessfully to force it through the fortress.
Eight minutes into the game, the sluggish (and turnover-prone) Eagles had just one field goal (a Sean Marshall layup in transition) and the well-lathered Yellow Jackets were buzzing their way to a 16-2 start after Thaddeus Young slammed home a wide-open tomahawk on the break.
Thanks to eight, first-half points by Tyrese Rice (18 points, six assists, eight turnovers) and some pleasantly surprising offensive production off the bench by shot-block specialist Tyrelle Blair, BC stayed afloat. Blair, perhaps underestimated by Tech’s defense, found some openings on the baseline. Dudley sniped a pass through the defense to the 6’11” junior for a thunderous dunk, cutting the deficit to 23-16. Another slam on the interior (from Rice) and three free-throws gave Blair seven-straight points to keep the Eagles within single digits with less than four minutes left in the half.
Blair’s brief offensive surge, however, wasn’t enough to demoralize Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets stretched an 11-point, halftime lead to 18 just four minutes into the second period. Dudley quickly responded with his six-point run, but that would be his – and BC’s –final rebuttal. A perfectly timed alley-oop dunk by Jeremis Smith, the second time he and freshman Javaris Crittendon hooked up, set the tone for the rest of the game.
When Mario West, Tech’s only starting senior on Senior Day, sank a three with 12:09 left to claim a 55-40 lead, the crowd exploded and the nail was firmly driven into the Eagles’ coffin.