Georgia Tech Wins Thriller Against Florida State, Advances In ACC Tournament

Georgia Tech will face Pitt tomorrow in the second round

Jackson Caudell | Mar 7, 2023

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Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Survive and advance.

That is the mantra for all teams in college basketball at this time of the year and it spoke perfectly to Georgia Tech's efforts today against Florida State.

It was not pretty and Tech did not lead hardly at all in this game, but they won and will face No. 5 seed Pittsburgh in the second round of the ACC Tournament.

The starting lineup was the same as it has been. Lance Terry, Kyle Sturdivant, Deebo Coleman, Miles Kelly, and Ja'von Franklin.

Georgia Tech jumped out to a 6-2 lead early against the Seminoles, but that would be the last time they would lead until the end of the game. The offense for Tech struggled for most of the first half.

FSU went on a quick 8-0 run to take a 10-6 lead, but a three-pointer from Coleman cut the lead back to one point.

Both teams struggled to score in the first half and with 7:34 remaining in the first half, Florida State opened up a seven-point lead and was starting to pull ahead of the Yellow Jackets.

FSU suffered a pair of unfortunate injuries in the first half to Matthew Cleveland and Baba Miller, but both players did return in the second half for the Seminoles.

Tech went long stretches of the first half without scoring but found themselves down only ten at the half.

Here were the halftime stats from this one:

Halftime stats. The game is still winnable, but going to need a much better second half (duh) pic.twitter.com/YwJTDBX5fK
— jackson caudell (@jacksoncaudell) March 7, 2023

The offense was going to need a jumpstart in the second half and that is what they got.

A quick 5-0 run from Tech cut the lead to 31-26 and after a three from FSU, Lance Terry hit one of his own to get the lead back to five, 34-29. Florida State went back up 40-29 and it looked as if GT was not going to be able to mount a comeback in time. The length from FSU was giving Georgia Tech a lot of problems in this game.

This team settled in defensively and was playing with more energy on that end of the court in the second half. Franklin was flying around and rebounding the ball and giving Georgia Tech more opportunities.

With 7:38 to go in the game, FSU still led by six and it just felt like a big run from the Yellow Jackets just was not going to come.

Terry hit a bucket and got the foul call to cut the lead to 53-51 and then Coleman tied it with a jumpshot 53-53 with 3:59 left in the game. FSU hit two quick layups to push the lead to 57-53, but Sturdivant hit a pair of free throws to get the lead back to two.

It looked like FSU hit a dagger three with 2:04 left to get the lead back to five, 60-55, but those were the last points that the Seminoles were going to score in the game.

Kelly hit a big three-pointer to make it 60-58 and then FSU had an offensive foul to give the ball back to Georgia Tech. Sturdivant would tie the game 60-60 and GT was going to need another stop to get the ball back.

Then things got really exciting.

FSU missed a three-pointer and with the shot clock off, Georgia Tech was going to have a chance to win this game at the buzzer. A missed shot by Terry gave way to Franklin being fouled on the putback attempt and with 0.2 seconds left, Georgia Tech was going to have a chance to win.

Franklin made the first to give GT the lead, 61-60, and then missed the second intentionally to make sure that Florida State did not have a chance to get a quick shot at the basket. The Yellow Jackets won after being down by as many as 11 and will now face Pitt in the second round.

Kelly led the way with 21 points for Georgia Tech, but Franklin's double-double (10 points and 19 rebounds) was just as important, if not more. Both players were fantastic, especially down the stretch. Coleman was the only other Yellow Jacket in double-figures (10 points).

Here are the final stats from today:

Final stats from the win pic.twitter.com/HpPVDrdgnV
— jackson caudell (@jacksoncaudell) March 7, 2023

Against the Panthers tomorrow, Georgia Tech is going to need to be more potent from three-point range and do a better job on the boards.

This was a thrilling finish and Georgia Tech has now won four games in a brown. A tough test from Pitt now awaits and the Panthers have beaten Georgia Tech in both matchups this season.

Georgia Tech vs Pitt will be tomorrow at 2:30 and will be broadcast on ESPN.

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