Georgia Tech hangs on for 66-58 win over Northwestern despite nearly losing 18-point lead
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Josh Heath had 12 points on 6-for-6 shooting, including two clutch baskets in the final 2:30, and Georgia Tech withstood a late Northwestern charge to hang on for a 66-58 victory in an ACC/Big Ten Challenge game on Wednesday night.
Charles Mitchell had a team-high 13 points and Robert Sampson added 11 points as the Yellow Jackets (6-1) won its third straight.
Alex Olah led Northwestern with 19 points and 10 rebounds and Tre Demps added 14 points. The Wildcats (5-2) trailed by as much as 18 points and were down 12 with six minutes left before rallying to pull within a point with a little more than a minute to go.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NU had rallied from late deficits for wins in the previous two home games against Elon and North Florida, but couldn't make it three in a row.
Georgia Tech quickly took command with a run of 18 straight points for a 20-2 advantage less than seven minutes into the game. Northwestern was scoreless for 6:02, going 0 for 8 with four turnovers during that stretch.
Olah finally ended the drought with a putback of a McIntosh miss with 13:01 left in the first half. Although the Wildcats closed the gap to nine points on two occasions, they never could get anything going consistently on the offensive end.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Yellow Jackets had a 31-18 halftime lead. The 18 points were a season-low in a half for Northwestern. The previous low was 20 against Northern Iowa.
NU was 8 for 29 (27.6 percent), including 1 for 12 on 3-pointers, in the first half.
In the second half, the Wildcats finally developed some offensive consistency.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Trailing 53-41, Northwestern charged back with a 10-2 run to make it 55-51 with 3:30 to play. Heath broke the run with a basket for a 57-53 edge with 2:23 remaining, but NU answered with five straight — capped by an Olah 3-pointer — to close the gap to 57-56 with 1:18 remaining.
Heath, though, answered again at the other end with a hoop and a foul with 55.5 seconds to go. He missed a free throw to keep it a one-possession game (59-56), but NU missed a quick 3-pointer and Georgia Tech closed things out from the free-throw line.
TIP INS
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Georgia Tech: Coach Brian Gregory is a native of nearby Mt. Prospect, Illinois, and was a Northwestern assistant during the 1997-98 and the 1998-99 seasons. . The Yellow Jackets were 5-9 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge before Wednesday and snapped a five-game losing streak in the challenge before a 67-64 win over Illinois last December.
Northwestern: This was the third time in the last five years the teams had met in the ACC/Big Ten challenge with the Wildcats winning each of the previous two meetings in 2010 and 2011. Northwestern is 6-9 in the challenge but became the first Big Ten team to win four straight from 2008 to 2011.
UP NEXT
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Georgia Tech hosts South Carolina Upstate on Saturday.
Northwestern plays at Butler on Saturday.