Demon
Deacons take sting out of Yellow Jackets
By Jordan Webster
Sports Editor
>
February 16, 2001
It’s
widely known that despite the numerous weapons that Head Coach Dave
Odom has in his arsenal, senior guard Robert O’Kelley is the key
to the Demon Deacons’ success. As goes O’Kelley, so go the
Deacs.
In the last two games, it has appeared that both O’Kelley and the
Deacs are going well.
O’Kelley’s 18 points spurred the Deacons to an 81-65 drubbing
of Georgia Tech Feb. 14. The 16-point final margin is somewhat misleading
– the Deacs maintained at least a 20-point advantage for much of
the second half, and were never really threatened by the Yellow Jackets.
The victory gives the Deacons a modest two-game winning streak, but
it marks the first time the team has prevailed in two straight games
since they defeated Navy on Dec. 28 and Virginia on Jan. 2. Furthermore,
the Deacons are beginning to look like the team that reeled off 12 wins
to start the season and climbed as high as No. 4 in the national rankings.
“Certainly we feel we played very well tonight,” Odom said
after the game. “It was a great win for us. Our team worked very
hard to get ready.”
With the win, the Deacons improved their conference record to 6-6 and
pulled into a four-way tie for third place in the ACC with Virginia,
Maryland and Georgia Tech, as the Cavaliers defeated Duke and Florida
State upset Maryland in other conference action last night. The Deacons
are now 17-7 overall.
O’Kelley had considerable help in the scoring department, as sophomore
forward Josh Howard added 18 points, tying O’Kelley for game-high
honors. Junior forward Darius Songaila celebrated his 23rd birthday
with a 14-point effort, and junior guard Craig Dawson chipped in with
10.
But it was O’Kelley who got things rolling for the Deacons in the
first half. The senior started the game on the bench for the fifth consecutive
game, but made an immediate impact when Odom called his number. With
the Deacons up by two at 9-7, O’Kelley ignited an 11-3 run with
a three-point bomb from the left wing. After T.J. Vines responded with
a three for Tech, Howard nailed another from long range, and O’Kelley
hit his second trey in less than a minute. Howard then hit a pair of
free throws to extend the Deacon lead to 20-10 with 13:18 left in the
first half, and the Deacs never looked back.
“I thought Robert had another very, very good night,” Odom
said.
A fast break lay-in by Tech’s Marvin Lewis with 6:24 to go cut
the Yellow Jacket deficit to three at 26-23, but Songaila rattled off
eight straight points and Howard hit a runner in the lane to give the
Deacons a 13-point lead. The Deacs took a 43-29 lead into the locker
room at halftime.
Also key
to the Deacon victory was holding onto the commanding lead that they
established in the first half. In recent contests against N.C. State
and Florida State, the Deacons had allowed a significant second-half
lead to evaporate, but Odom’s squad picked up after halftime where
they left off before it, as a Dawson three from the right side topped
off a 17-9 spurt to extend their 14-point halftime advantage to 22 with
13:27 remaining.
“I thought the key to us being able to win comfortably was going
to be how we played in the beginning of the second half, and we did
that extremely well,” Odom said.
“I was very pleased with that,” he said. “I thought we
showed a lot of poise when we came out and had that good run to get
that good lead, and sometimes it’s big leads like that are hard
to hold onto, but tonight we were able to do that because we had contributions
from pretty much everybody throughout the lineup.”
The Deacons shot the ball very well, hitting an even 50 percent of their
field goal attempts, including 56 percent from three-point range. O’Kelley
and Howard were a combined 7 of 10 from behind the arc.
If Odom was to find a flaw with his team’s performance, it was
its effort on the defensive end, as Georgia Tech shot 50 percent from
the floor as well. Led by senior center Josh Shoemaker’s eight,
the Deacons outrebounded the Yellow Jackets 36 to 24, and grabbed 13
offensive rebounds.
Tony Akins
paced Georgia Tech with 16 points, and Alvin Jones had 11 points and
13 rebounds.
Next up
for the Deacons are the Terrapins of Maryland, who will visit Joel Coliseum
on Feb. 17. The Terps will be looking to rebound from a poor showing
in a loss to Florida State at home.
