National Basketball Association
Notre Dame 62, Georgia Tech 59
When: 7:00 PM ET, Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Where: McCamish Pavilion, Atlanta, Georgia
Officials:
# Tony Greene, # Sean Hull, # Bryan Kersey
Attendance:
7282
By SportsDirect Inc.
No. 12 Notre Dame 62, Georgia Tech 59: Jerian Grant scored 12 points and hit a critical jumper with 19.6 seconds remaining as the visiting Fighting Irish rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit.
Steve Vasturia added 11 points for Notre Dame (16-2, 4-1 ACC), which used a balanced offensive attack in playing without second-leading scorer and rebounder Zach Auguste. Pat Connaughton, V.J. Beachem and Bonzie Colson each finished with 10 points as the Fighting Irish, the nation’s top shooting team, recovered from a 38.5 percent effort in the first half to hit 50 percent of their second-half shots.
Demarco Cox scored a career-high 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting and added seven rebounds for Georgia Tech (9-7, 0-4), which missed 7-of-9 shots from the field in the final 10 minutes. Chris Bolden added 13 points, 11 in the first half.
A pair of free throws from Marcus Georges-Hunt and Cox put Georgia Tech ahead 56-55 with 4:48 to play, but Vasturia’s driving layup down the lane 32 seconds later moved Notre Dame back on top by a point. Both teams went cold from the field in the final minutes, but Grant’s jumper from the right wing with 19.6 seconds to go extended the lead to 59-56 and after Georges-Hunt missed the front end of a one-and-one, Vasturia converted a three-point play with 8.8 seconds left.
Cox scored four points during an early 8-0 burst and Bolden hit three 3-pointers in the first half as the Yellow Jackets led 38-30 at halftime, but Notre Dame opened the second half with a 14-5 run, taking a 44-43 lead on Connaughton’s 3-pointer a little less than five minutes into the period. Beachem’s 3-pointer with less than 11 minutes left pushed the lead to 51-47.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Auguste, who averages 14.3 points and 6.4 rebounds, did not make the trip due to what coach Mike Brey deemed an academic matter. … The Yellow Jackets shot 53.6 percent in the first half but hit just 6-of-23 attempts after halftime. … Georges-Hunt and Charles Mitchell, Georgia Tech’s top two scorers, finished with a combined eight points on 1-of-11 shooting.
Top Game Performances
Notre Dame |
|
Georgia Tech |
Jerian Grant 12 |
Scoring |
Demarco Cox 17 |
Jerian Grant 6 |
Assists |
Marcus Georges-Hunt 3 |
Demetrius Jackson 8 |
Rebounds |
Charles Mitchell 9 |
Pat Connaughton 5 |
Free Throws Made |
Marcus Georges-Hunt 6 |
V.J. Beachem 1 |
Steals |
Josh Heath 3 |
Demetrius Jackson 1 |
Blocks |
Demarco Cox 3 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
Notre Dame
|
62 |
43.5 |
7-17 |
15-19 |
16 |
24 |
1 |
5 |
9 |
Georgia Tech
|
59 |
41.2 |
5-10 |
12-15 |
14 |
31 |
4 |
6 |
9 |