Fans bid adieu to lone senior, Tarver

As Theodis Tarver walked off the court with two minutes left, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. Tarver, the only senior on the team, played well, totaling six rebounds and playing excellent defense for 21 minutes. This game was Tarver’s last at the Coliseum, and he was a starter for the game.

With under 1:30 left in the game and with Tech ahead by 12 points, Tarver entered the game as Wake Forest needed to foul to keep hopes alive. With less than one minute left in the game, Tarver was fouled and sent to shoot free throws. He sank the first one and the Coliseum erupted in cheers and applause for Tech’s senior forward. After the game, Tarver commented on his last game.

“It was good to see everybody out there supporting me and supporting the team and coming out with a big win,” he said.

Just three days after a disappointing second half cost them the game against No.1 Duke, the Jackets played a strong second half to propel them over the Demon Deacons. The consistent second half scoring was something the Jackets lacked in recent games.

Just three minutes into the second half, the Jackets went on a 10-2 run. Freshman Lewis Clinch hit a three from the wing, followed by an Anthony Morrow jump shot after Clinch stole the ball from Wake senior Justin Gray. After Clinch missed a three, Morrow hit two free throws followed by a three pointer to put Tech up by 12.

Clinch scored a career-high 20 points, including making five of seven from behind the arc. Clinch has improved quite a bit as a shooter after coming back from injury early in the season.

“It’s nice to see Lewis Clinch step up and play with a lot of confidence. We’ve been talking to him a lot lately, just trying to remind him that he is a good player and that he can make plays for us. For him to come up with 20 [points] today, it’s a nice boost of confidence for him going into the last game,” Head Coach Paul Hewitt said.

Sophomores Morrow and Ra’Sean Dickey added 16 and 15 respectively. Dickey continued his good shooting, going six of nine from the floor. As a team this was the fourth game in a row in which the team put up a combined field goal percentage of over 50 percent. The Jackets also out-rebounded the Demon Deacons 38-33.

All in all, the Jackets had a very solid outing in both halves, something not seen since the N.C. State game on Feb. 12.

The game against Wake Forest started with the two teams trading baskets. Junior guard Mario West had a lay-up one minute into the game to give the Jackets the lead. He didn’t stop with just the basket, as he made an amazing defensive play on the other end when he blocked Trent Strickland’s lay-up.

About four minutes into the game, however, Eric Williams opened up with his first dunk. Hewitt commented on how the Jackets guarded Williams.

“It looked like we were scared of him. We didn’t want to go anywhere near him. He looked like a bully and we were running the other way,” Hewitt said.

It did seem like the Jackets ran away from Williams, as he was the only player the Jackets were unable to contain. Williams scored 16 points in the first half and pulled down five rebounds, including three offensive boards.

The difference in the first half was Clinch draining three of four from behind the arc. A Justin Gray turnover led to Clinch’s first three-point shot, eight minutes into the game. That shot gave the Jackets the lead, and Tech would never trail for the rest of the game.

Jeremis Smith and Dickey took more outside shots than normal, perhaps in part to the presence of Williams or because the Deacon defenders played them to drive. Smith shot 2-5, although two of his three misses were from three-point range.

Tech led by just two points at halftime, and then jumped out to a 12-point lead just three minutes into the second half. Minutes later, a three-pointer by Justin Gray cut the lead to six, but Lewis Clinch answered with a three-pointer of his own. After the game, Wake Forest Head Coach Skip Prosser talked about the two teams trading baskets.

“That was a recurring theme in the second half; they got too many shots back. The guys who we didn’t want to shoot threes, we allowed them to make catches and then shoot threes. We’re not a team that we’ve had in the past that can really score in bunches. We can’t have those breakdowns,” Prosser said.

The Jackets had the advantage with six offensive rebounds, 20 total in the second half. Wake Forest never came within nine points of Tech after Morrow hit a deep two-pointer from the right wing to push the Tech lead back to nine with 11:10 left in the game. Justin Gray, Wake Forest’s leading three-point shooter, was pressured into situations where it was difficult for him to find a shot, or even an open man to pass to.

Williams, who had 16 points in the first half, was held to just three second-half baskets. “I thought they had everyone and the Red Army guarding him,” Prosser said, on Tech’s defending Williams in the second half. The Jackets held Wake to just 27 percent shooting in the final frame, and also played very good perimeter defense, holding Wake to just 24 percent three point shooting for the game.

The Jackets will round out the regular season as they face Clemson at Little John Coliseum tomorrow. Tip-time is set for 2 p.m. The Jackets will look forward to the ACC tournament, but only time will tell how much the young Jackets have improved this year. But with Hewitt at the helm, the outcome couldn’t possibly be bad. “Paul Hewitt’s a very bright guy. Everyone in Atlanta knows that,” Prosser said. ACC tournament action begins next Thursday in Greensboro, N.C.