The Clemson Tigers Men’s Basketball team kept their NCAA Tournament hopes alive with a hard fought 69-65 overtime victory over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Thursday Night in Greensboro, North Carolina. This was the Tigers tenth straight victory Georgia Tech, was definitely one of the more exciting games in the streak. Clemson found itself in a similar situation as they faced in the regular season finale loss to Pitt. With .9 second left, Daniel Miller of Tech drained a fade away two point shot to tie it up, and eventually send the game to overtime. However, Clemson stayed strong in the face of adversity. The overtime period went back and fourth before Demarcus Harrison grabbed a loose ball and took it to the basket to put Clemson up 63-62. As the Jackets got into their offensive set, Trae Golden was called for an illegal pick after ramming into Harrison while passing to a teammate. This gave Clemson the ball, and Harrison was promptly fouled. He sank both free throws to give Clemson a three point lead. Center Landry Nnoko for the Tigers grabbed a Golden miss and was fouled and shoved by Tech big man, Daniel Miller. Miller was called for a foul, but not issued a technical or flagrant for the shove. Nnoko hit both free throws to ice the game. Harrison added two more free throws to put the Tigers at 69, and a late three from Golden was too little too late for Georgia Tech. The Tigers had a great performance from Alpharetta, Georgia native Jaron Blossomgame. The redshirt freshman forward pulled down nine rebounds and added seven points. KJ McDaniels led the Tiger scorers with 18 points. Another Georgia native had a big night vs Tech, as point guard Rod Hall of Augusta dropped 10 points. The Tigers won the battle of the free throw line, shooting 86.2% to Tech’s 55%. The win sets up a matchup with the number seventh ranked Duke Blue Devils Friday night at 9:00 PM. The Tigers defeated Duke 72-59 on January 11th. Duke, as a third seed, earned byes for the first two rounds, so Friday’s game will be their first of the tournament.
