On Senior Day, Gabe DeVoe leads Clemson to much-needed win over Georgia Tech
CLEMSON -- Clemson found itself in some big trouble when it faced an 11-point second-half deficit against Georgia Tech.
After losing three games in a row, the Tigers couldn’t afford to let a game against a struggling 11-17 Georgia Tech team slip away from their grasps.
No. 15 Clemson clawed its way back late in the second half to defeat the Georgia Tech 75-67 and get back to its winning ways.
The Tigers ended the game on a 28-9 run over a ten-minute span to give Clemson its tenth win in ACC play.
“I’m really proud of the way our guys closed the game out,” head coach Brad Brownell said after the win. “We didn’t have our best stuff today because of the way Georgia Tech competed. A lot of credit goes to those guys. Our guys found a way to win, which is significant this time of year.”
Clemson came into the game struggling offensively in its last two games without Shelton Mitchell on the floor and with Gabe DeVoe going through a slump. There was an added pressure for Marcquise Reed to do it all for his team, but his efforts weren’t enough as Clemson didn’t score more than 57 points in the last two losses.
But on Senior Day, DeVoe (aka “Bobby Buckets”) got his groove back.
The senior shooting guard scored a game-high 25 points against the Yellow Jackets for the second time this season. He finished shooting 7-for-13 from the floor, 4-for-7 from three.
DeVoe came into the game making just two of his last 14 three-pointers, but that didn’t stop Brownell from drawing up the first play for him.
He came off of a down screen and didn’t hesitate as he knocked down a three from the wing to give Clemson its first points of the game. He started the game making his first three shots from behind the arc to get Clemson going offensively.
“It was huge. Even after the struggles, coach showed the confidence,” DeVoe said. “He believes in me, my teammates believe in me. I’m going to continue playing with confidence and not let those two games bother my confidence.”
Clemson jumped out to a 17-7 lead to begin the game and let its guard down a little bit. Georgia Tech guard Josh Okogie took advantage and was doing everything for the Yellow Jackets. He made his first eight shots, scoring 22 points to lead the Yellow Jackets to a second-half lead.
A lifeless Littlejohn crowd for most of the afternoon moaned and groaned, surely thinking Clemson was about to let another game get away from them, this time against an inferior opponent.
But the Tigers were finally able to string together some stops, and the crowd came alive. With Shelton Mitchell back running the offense, Clemson roared back from an 11-point deficit to tie the game at 61 with 3:39 left in the game.
“After coach called a timeout, we started to chip away,” DeVoe said. “Knowing it was a long game and not trying to make the home run plays and just keep chipping at it, we knew if we just stayed steady on defense we would be fine.”
The Tigers clamped down on defense to end the game when they needed to most. Clemson tightened things up on Georgia Tech, forcing to only make two of its last 12 field goal attempts.The Yellow Jackets shot 39 percent from the field while Clemson shot 49 percent.
Mitchell’s 14 points, 12 of them coming in the second half, were just what the doctor ordered for Clemson as well. His points and playmaking came just at the right time. The pressure Reed and DeVoe felt in Mitchell’s absence slowly melted away.
“His speed in transition really opens up the offense a lot,” DeVoe said on what Mitchell brings to the court. “It allows me to get easy looks. He just brings an element that he only has on our team.”
It was DeVoe’s three with 48 seconds left in the game that was the dagger that pierced Georgia Tech. His family, which took up almost an entire section, stood up cheering while holding up pictures of his face. With his struggles in the past two games, today’s “gritty” win was good for him going forward and just as significant.
“(We were) just able to tough it out. Kind of like my career honestly,” DeVoe said. “Just continue to fight and find a way and was able to do that down the stretch.”
Brownell wasn’t pleased with his team’s overall performance against Georgia Tech but noted the Littlejohn atmosphere was the shot in the arm Clemson needed late to come back and win.
“I don’t think we win this game on the road. We were just a little bit low energy level in the middle of the second half,” Brad Brownell said. “Sometimes I tell our guys, ‘if you get in a fight and you aren’t ready for it, you aren’t going to win.’ That’s what happened to us today…The crowd gave us the energy we needed to come back and win this game.”
The head coach mentioned several times how tired his team looked throughout the game Saturday afternoon. The stress of playing a lot of minutes without Mitchell caught up to some of Clemson’s key player. Brownell wants to evaluate things closely over the next 48 hours so his team will be well prepared for a big-time matchup with No. 25 Florida State.
With a double-bye in the ACC tournament still in sight, the Tigers want to finish strong. It all started with a much-needed victory and big-time DeVoe performance on Senior Day.