Georgia Tech holds on to beat short-handed Clemson, 69-64

Feb 5, 2022, 09:26 pm

ATLANTA -- — Deivon Smith came off the Georgia Tech bench to score 16 points and dish six assists and the Yellow Jackets had to hold on late to post a 69-64 upset win over Clemson for just their third victory in their first 11 Atlantic Coast Conference games Saturday.

Georgia Tech started fast, building a 13-point lead at intermission, but the Tigers battled back late. Al-Amir Dawes hits three 3s in the final seven minutes to pull Clemson within six and David Collins hit a jumper to make it a four-point game, then cut the deficit to three with two free throws with 20 seconds left, 67-64, but the Tigers missed two 3-point attempts in the closing seconds.

Georgia Tech (10-12, 3-8) got 37 of its 69 points from its bench. Smith hit 6 of 10 from the field and 4 of 5 from the line while grabbing eight rebounds, Miles Kelly hit 3 of 5 from beyond the arc to add 10 points and Dallan Coleman hit 3 of 7 from distance to add nine points, all off the bench. Jordan Usher had 14 points and three steals.

Clemson (12-10, 4-7), was without Hunter Tyson, who is out indefinitely with a broken clavicle suffered in the first half of the Tigers' 75-69 victory over Florida State Wednesday. The 6-foot-8 senior had started 21 straight games and was averaging a career-best 10.4 points per game.

PJ Hall and Dawes each added 18 points to lead Clemson. Dawes knocked down 6 of 10 shots from behind the arc.

Georgia Tech travels to Miami Wednesday before visiting Virginia Saturday.

Clemson will host a three-game home stand beginning with North Carolina Tuesday followed by No. 9 Duke Thursday and Notre Dame Saturday.

------

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore/--/gameId/401371139 AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and https://twitter.com/AP--Top25