Young's career high lifts Tigers over GT |
CLEMSON- Saturday’s contest against Georgia Tech was all about the power – a power outage and a power surge by
Andre Young
In the end, however, it was Young and his career-high 29 points and the Tigers who won out by holding off a late Tech rally for a 64-62 Atlantic Coast Conference win in Littlejohn Coliseum Saturday afternoon. The Tigers (10-9, 2-3 ACC) snapped a three-game losing streak, but watched a 16-point lead nearly disappear over the final six minutes. Jason Morris' 3-pointer with 23.5 seconds left drew Georgia Tech within three points at 62-59. But Young, who also hit a career-high seven 3-pointers, calmly hit two free throws to extend the lead and beat the Yellow Jackets (8-11, 1-4) for a fourth straight time. The matchup was also the 120th all-time between the two schools, and the Tigers evened up the series at 60 wins apiece. “I’m really happy for our guys,” Clemson head coach
Brad Brownell handled the power outage, halftime, and all the strangeness of the game very well.” Y oung, a senior, surpassed his previous high of 22 points, something he last accomplished in the Tigers’ NCAA Tournament loss to West Virginia last March. “To be honest, I thought [Andre] would have had a more games like this - maybe not with 29 points, but today when he shot it well from three,” Brownell said of his senior. “He’s been fighting it a little bit, but as you can see we needed it, and with only 64 points, he had 29 of them. Other guys played well in spurts offensively and had some baskets. Milt [Jennings] had some late and I thought Bernard [Sullivan] and Rod [Hall] played well early. Tanner [Smith] was pretty solid and Devin [Booker] was good off the bench, but we didn’t have another ‘go-to guy’ and [Andre] carried us.” The Tigers were actually leading 13-10 in the first half when Littlejohn Coliseum experienced a power outage that knocked out the overhead lights, leaving it in an orange glow as the emergency lighting kicked in. The power was out for approximately 20 minutes before the lights were restored, and it was then that the lights came on for Young. Prior to the power going out with 5:56 left in the first half the, the Tigers had scored just 13 points. After the delay, Young sparked a 21-9 Clemson run by hitting four 3-pointers and converting another three-point play. Young actually scored 15 consecutive points for Clemson, the most consecutive points scored by a Clemson player since December 13, 2003 when Chey Christie scored 15 in a row against Georgia in Phillips Arena. Freshman
Rod Hall The Yellow Jackets committed 17 first half turnovers as the Tigers led 34-19 at intermission. Young and the Tigers kept up the pressure to begin the second, and his reverse layup at the 18:13 mark gave Clemson its biggest lead of the contest at 37-20. The Tigers and Jackets battled back and forth over the next 14 minutes, and it appeared Young had put the game out of reach when he nailed another 3-pointer – this one to beat the shot clock – at the 7:25 mark to put Clemson ahead 56-40. But Glen Rice, Jr., scored 15 of his 19 points in the final five minutes as he almost single-handedly brought the Jackets back to within striking distance, and it took Young’s two final free throws to earn the win for the Tigers. Brownell said nothing seemed to work for the Tigers over the last few minutes. “We tried everything. If you play soft and try and defend the three, you don’t want to foul,” he said. “They were making shots over the top of us. We also had a few calls go against us, and I will be watching the film on those. The last few minutes we tried to play zone to slow them down because we thought that would work, but they were still able to throw tough shots in. You can look at like it was a remarkable run by [GT], and it was, or you can say we played tremendous defense for 35 minutes and were able to minimize their power for the majority of the game. I choose to look at it that way.” Next up for the Tigers is Wake Forest, a noon contest at Littlejohn Coliseum next Saturday. 
Andre Young
Sr. Guard
#11 5-9, 175
Albany, GA
View Full Profile
and a late surge by the Yellow Jackets.
Brad Brownell
Head Coach
View Full Profile
said. “We’ve had a couple days of tough practice after not playing as well as we wanted to in Miami. I thought we played really well for 35, 36 minutes and certainly missed a few free throws and we had a few things go against us; they had some shots go in at the end to make it scary, but I thought our guys played really well. I thought we 
Rod Hall
Fr. Guard
#4 6-1, 210
Augusta, GA
View Full Profile
scored on two consecutive trips down the court by driving the lane and finishing at the basket, while
Devin Booker
Devin Booker
Jr. Forward
#31 6-8, 245
Whitmire, SC
View Full Profile
ended the half with a put-back at the buzzer.
VISITORS: Georgia Tech 8-11, 1-4
Upgrade Your Account
Unlock premium boards and exclusive features (e.g. ad-free) by upgrading your account today.
Upgrade Now
