West, Jackets defeat Eagles on Senior Day
By Scott Medway / Student Publications
Tech won its final regular season game Sunday, defeating Boston College, 74-60. The win brought Tech up to .500 in ACC play.
Tech won its last game of the season against Boston College at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum, 74-60.
Javaris Crittenton led all scorers with 16 points. The freshman star point guard also dished out 10 assists for his second consecutive double-double. He made just one turnover in the game.
"We're executing the offense better. It opens up a lot of things. That's where my assists come from," Crittenton said.
Boston College scored the first field goal of the game a little under four minutes into the game to take a one-point lead, but then allowed Tech to go on a 15-0 run.
The Jackets never looked back and led by a comfortable margin for much of the rest of the game, extending the deficit to 20 points late in the second half.
In Mario West's last game at the Coliseum, the guard played some of his best basketball, creating turnovers and scoring points.
"I'm very happy for Mario West, to play his last game on this court. He's done a tremendous job guiding these guys," said Head Coach Paul Hewitt.
The red-shirt senior finished with seven points, two rebounds and four assists.
"I was very happy and sad at the same time. I've had a wonderful career and wonderful opportunity here," West said.
With 12:09 left in the second half and with the shot clock winding down, West made a three-point shot from well beyond the arc as time expired. This gave the Jackets a 55-40 lead.
While Tech scored over 70 points for its fourth straight game, the key to many of their recent victories has been defense.
"We're a talented offensive group, but when we don't guard and when we're not disruptive defensively, then we're not going to score. We have to be disruptive," Hewitt said.
The team forced Boston College to commit 22 turnovers to Tech's nine. The turnovers proved costly as the Eagles only attempted 35 shots in the game to Tech's 62.
"Defense has always been Tech's foundation to success. That opens everything for us. We have a lot of guys that can score, but it always starts on the defensive end," West said.
The Eagles' guard Tyrese Rice finished with eight turnovers. Jared Dudley, the ACC's leading scorer going into the game with a 19.6 scoring average, finished with a season-low 10 points.
"Teams aren't going to just allow us to walk down the floor and hand the ball to Jared Dudley... Obviously we'd like to get him more shots than that," said Boston College Head Coach Al Skinner.
Tech has now won seven of nine, including six of eight in league play. Tech reached .500 in conference play after falling to 2-6 earlier in the season.
The win combined with Duke's loss to North Carolina earns Tech a No. 6 seed in the ACC Tournament currently held in Tampa.
"We're playing well, so why not try and go there and erase all doubt? Everybody goes down [to the ACC tournament] with a chance to erase any doubt about whether they're in the [NCAA] Tournament or not. That's what we're focusing on right now," Hewitt said.
Tech now awaits Selection Sunday to see if they have been chosen to play in the NCAA tournament.
