 It took the Yellow Jackets more than four minutes to get their first basket of the game. Doug Pensinger/Getty Images |
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SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Paul Hewitt couldn't bear to look.
No wonder. After an amazing run of close victories in the NCAA tournament, Georgia Tech became something else in the championship game -- the team that couldn't shoot straight.
The Yellow Jackets jacked it up from the outside. They tried to go inside. Nothing worked.
They looked every bit like a team that had never been this far in the tourney, a team that was seen as the Final Four outsider.
Georgia Tech shot only 38 percent in an 82-73 loss to Connecticut in the championship game Monday night, the Huskies' second title in six years.
"You're hoping something like that won't happen in the national championship game," said Marvin Lewis, who missed all five of his 3-pointers after making five in Saturday's win over Oklahoma State. "It wasn't our night."
While the game was becoming a blowout early in the second half, Hewitt kept turning his back to the court. Sometimes, the Georgia Tech coach would bury his face in his hands. Other times, he would simply look toward the ceiling and smile weakly, as if resigned to the fact that this wouldn't be his team's night.
The Yellow Jackets (28-10) actually padded their numbers with a late flourish that made the score respectable. They shot just 29 percent in the first half (10-of-34) and weren't much better at the foul line, going 4-for-11.
Not surprisingly, UConn led 41-26 at the half and cruised the rest of the way.
In only one other game did Georgia Tech shoot worse than this -- a 37.7 percent effort against Duke on Jan. 31.
It couldn't have come at a worse time.
"If this happened in mid-January, we would take it and move on," Hewitt said.
His players echoed that line of thinking, saying it was just one of those nights.
They failed to take into account UConn's fierce defense, led by Emeka Okafor in the middle.
"It's hard for the ball to fall when everyone is all over you," UConn star Ben Gordon said. "It's not like you're in the layup line getting open shots."
There would be no repeat of the preseason NIT, when Georgia Tech had its coming-out party at Madison Square Garden with a stunning 16-point win over the top-ranked Huskies.
The tone was set right away, though it took just a bit longer for UConn to pull away. B.J. Elder missed a jumper. Lewis missed two in a row. Even Georgia Tech's first basket, by Lewis, didn't go through the hoop. Okafor was called for goaltending, one of the few things that didn't go right for the Huskies.
Jarrett Jack came up with a steal, but couldn't finish off the drive. After Elder missed his next two shots, the Yellow Jackets tried to get their 7-foot-1 center, Luke Schenscher, involved. But a right-handed hook clanked off the rim, and he also missed an off-balance shot under the basket.
With each miss, the basket looked smaller and smaller.
"Maybe after a few shots didn't fall, we began to press a little bit," Hewitt said. "That's human nature."
Georgia Tech finally put the ball through the hoop when Elder swished a 3-pointer with more than four minutes gone. Alas, that failed to spark the Yellow Jackets. They led only once, 12-11.
Georgia Tech prided itself on being a team first, with no true stars. It's fair to say this was a team effort.
Schenscher, the big Aussie, scored 19 points in the semifinal victory. This time, he was held to nine and got abused by Okafor, the Final Four Most Outstanding Player after scoring 24.
Will Bynum, who beat the Cowboys with an electrifying drive to the basket, couldn't even make a free throw in the first half. He missed all four of his attempts -- two times to start a 1-and-1 -- and the ball clanked off the rim with varying degrees of ugliness.
Lewis was 3-of-9. Elder was 4-of-15. Jack was 1-of-8.
Too bad the Yellow Jackets couldn't call on some of their former greats, who turned out at the Alamodome hoping to celebrate a national championship.
Mark Price was there. So were John Salley, Dennis Scott, Duane Ferrell, Matt Harpring, Travis Best and Chris Bosh.
There was nothing they could do but watch glumly as the seconds ticked away on the greatest season in school history.
Still, it was a year worth savoring. After being picked to finish seventh in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Yellow Jackets fell one victory short of winning it all.
The future looks bright with the 40-year-old Hewitt at the helm. The only significant losses off this team are expected to be Lewis and backup forward Clarence Moore.
The other starters -- Schenscher, Elder, Jack and Anthony McHenry -- are coming back, along with Bynum, Isma'il Muhammad and a recruiting class that could be one of the nation's best.
The Yellow Jackets showed plenty of heart with a late flourish, scrambling to get the deficit as low as seven points after trailing by 25.
"We can hold our heads up," Lewis said. "We fought as hard as we could."
But appropriately enough, Georgia Tech's final shot -- a desperation 3 by Elder -- failed to touch the rim.
From start to finish, this was the team that couldn't shoot straight.
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