The ACC’s 14-team tournament opened with two surprisingly exciting matchups on Tuesday afternoon in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Virginia Tech 81 Wake Forest 80
The young, 14th-seeded Hokies’ season lives on another day, as freshman guard Jalen Hudson absolutely went off en route to scoring 35 points on 10-of-18 shooting, which culmintaed with him hitting the eventual game-winning shot with 11.7 seconds left, as Virginia Tech (11-21) took down the Demon Deacons.
First-year Hokies coach Buzz Williams wasn’s surprised by Hudson’s performance, even in spite of his 6.2 points per game average on the season.
“I’ve said since Thanksgiving that Jalen was our most talented player, but he didn’t play hard enough to be that every game,” Williams said. “When he plays hard, he’s really good, and when he doesn’t play hard, he’s just a 6-foot-4 guard (who) doesn’t play hard. He’s growing up like the rest of the freshmen are.”
11th-seeded Wake Forest (13-19) was led by junior guard Codi Williams-Mcintyre’s 23 points and 11 assists.
Up next: Virginia Tech faces sixth-seeded Miami at 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
Boston College 66 Georgia Tech 65
Boston College’s Oliver Hanlan did it all for the Eagles, including the go-ahead jumper with 10.9 seconds left that put BC up for good after a hard fought game against a stubborn Georgia Tech team.
Hanlan scored 25 points for 12th-seeded Boston College (13-18), who led 35-34 at halftime.
Georgia Tech (12-19) played admirably despite being without leading scorer Marcus Georges-Hunt, who broke his right foot early in the regular-season finale against North Carolina on March 3rd. They were led by freshman guard Tadric Jackson’s 16 points.
Up next: Boston College will face the fifth-seeded Tar Heels on Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET.
