The men’s basketball team finished the regular season at home against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons with one of their best performances of the year. Sophomore guard Jason Morris had a career-high 22 points, and scored five of the total 11-pointers of the game for the Jackets en route to a Jackets’ 69-62 win.
Senior guard Nick Foreman started the Jackets’ scoring early with a three–pointer just 30 seconds into the first half. Junior guard Mfon Udofia added two three-pointers to the Tech score in the first five minutes of play. Udofia had 15 points and five of the 18 team-assists for the game.
Wake Forest would respond, though, taking the lead with 10:43 to play in the first period off a C.J. Harris jumper. Tech momentarily regained the lead off of a three by Morris, making the score 23-21, but Carson Desrosiers scored four quick points to give the lead back to the Demon Deacons.
The Jackets retook the lead when senior guard Derek Craig scored a jumper with 1:58 to play, followed by a lay-up by Udofia to finish the first half for the Jackets. The Jackets went into the locker room at halftime with a 32-28 advantage.
At the half, the Yellow Jackets had scored 13 points from the bench, but Wake Forest had outscored them 14-4 in the paint. Tech scored eight of their 17 three-point attempts in the first period, and would go on to score three more for a season-high 11 three-pointers in a game.
Morris started the second half hitting a jumper early, but Tech quickly lost the lead after three consecutive three-point shots by Wake Forest’s C.J. Harris and Tony Chennault. After several consecutively missed shots, sophomore center Daniel Miller threw down a dunk to put the Jackets back on top.
However, Wake Forest responded again, taking the lead for the last time with 11:13 left to play. Morris continued his strong performance, though, and scored a three with nine minutes left to play to give the Jackets the lead again. After the shot by Morris, the Jackets would hold the lead through the remainder of the game.
Tech went on a 10-point run before Wake Forest would begin closing the gap with 4:28 to play. Tech scored its final point of the game, a free throw shot by Udofia, to take a 12-point lead with 27 seconds remaining.
Wake Forest’s Ryan Keenan sunk a three-pointer for Wake with four seconds left to play, and the game ended in a 69-62 win for the Jackets.
In the second half, Tech scored 20 points in the paint, 10 points off of turnovers and 13 points from the bench.
Although Wake had better shooting percentages across the board through the second period, Tech was able to hold them to four offensive rebounds for the entire game. Tech registered 18 assists for the game — one short of the season high and the most they tallied in any conference game this season.
With the win, Tech became the 11th seed in the ACC tournament, which kicked off Thursday, March 8. The Jackets faced the sixth seeded Miami Hurricanes on Thursday, March 8, prior to the time of press.