Yellow Jackets Sting Canes 66-57
ATLANTA (CBS4) – A stinging loss to the Georgia Tech's Yellow Jackets has the Miami Hurricanes limping into the ACC Tournament this week.
Yellow Jacket Lance Storrs set a career scoring high in his final regular-season game, helping to put a winning end to Georgia Tech's 55 years at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
Storrs had five 3-pointers to lead Georgia Tech's strong effort on long-range shots, Iman Shumpert had 19 points and the Yellow Jackets beat Miami Sunday to close their home building.
Georgia Tech (13-17 overall, 5-11 Atlantic Coast Conference) finished a disappointing regular season under coach Paul Hewitt with its first two-game winning streak since January.
Adrian Thomas had 14 points and Durand Scott had 13 for Miami (18-13, 6-10 ACC), which was hurt by 21 turnovers. The turnovers led to 23 points for the Yellow Jackets, who extended their press defense with success in the second half.
"Our inability to handle the ball was the difference," said Miami coach Frank Haith. "Georgia Tech's pressure was good, but our guard play was not very good and particularly there in the second half. It's as simple as that."
Miami had won six of nine before being outscored 39-23 in the second half.
"We've been playing well lately," Haith said. "That's the first game we didn't play well in quite a while."
Miami led 37-27 early in the second half but couldn't stop Georgia Tech's 3-point shooting. The Yellow Jackets made 12 of 28 3-pointers. Their 42.9-percent shooting on 3s was far better than their season average of 29.6, last in the ACC.
"I think we moved from a point where we were taking poor shots to taking good shots and just not making them," Hewitt said of his team's progress through the season.
"We made our shots today and so it looks a lot different. I think our shot selection has improved."
Miami ranks 11th in the ACC with its minus-2.1 turnover margin. Georgia Tech attempted to take advantage of the Hurricanes' weakness by putting pressure on the ball early and leaning on Shumpert's shooting.
Shumpert hit three 3-pointers in the first 7 minutes and scored Georgia Tech's first 11 points as the Yellow Jackets led 14-5.
Miami answered with 12 straight points to take the lead.
Thomas, who averages 9.2 points, had 11 in the first half as Miami led 34-27 at the break.
Miami pushed its lead to 10 points when Malcolm Grant opened the second half with a 3-pointer. Miami then collapsed under the weight of its growing turnovers as Georgia Tech took the lead with a 20-4 run, capped by Storrs' 3-pointer.
A crowd of 8,025, short of a sellout but the second-largest of the season, saw the final game in the 55-year history of Georgia Tech's home facility.
(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
