Tech men fall in South Bend

A frustrating season continued Wednesday for the Georgia Tech mens basketball team.

Robert Carter Jr. scored 19 points, but couldn’t get three more as Notre Dame escaped with a 65-62 victory at the Joyce Center. Carter Jr. had his most productive game since a knee injury kept him out of the lineup for all of January and the early part of February, hitting 8 of his 16 field goal attempts and adding 11 rebounds. But the sophomore missed a potential-tying 3-pointer with 11 seconds left, then after Chris Bolden grabbed an offensive rebound, Carter Jr. missed again.

Tech (13-15, 4-11 Atlantic Coast Conference) trailed by as much as nine points in the second half, but made it a 56-55 game on Kammeon Holsey’s lay up at the 5:47 mark.

It was a seven-point Fighting Irish lead when Carter Jr. made consecutive 3-pointers 36 seconds apart that pulled the visiting Yellow Jackets to within 63-62 with 1:15 to play. Tech hit 10 of 20 from three-point range after coming into the game 13th in the ACC at 31 percent from beyond the arc.

Garrick Sherman, who led all scorers with 21 points, stole the ball from Carter Jr. and Pat Connaughton was 2 of 2 from the free-throw line for the last points of the night.

Eric Atkins added 17 points for Notre Dame (15-14, 6-10), which has won its six conference games by a combined 23 points.

Marcus Georges-Hunt was the only other Tech player in double figures, contributing 13 points.

Elsewhere in Wednesday ACC & SEC action…

No. 12 Virginia 65, Miami 40

In a season of dominance on the defensive end, the Cavaliers produced perhaps their best effort Wednesday.

Visiting Miami made just 26 percent of its field goal attempts and missed all 12 of its three-point tries as Virginia won its 12th consecutive game.

Virginia (24-5, 15-1 ACC), which hasn’t lost since January 13, equaled its lowest point total allowed this season in maintaining its perch atop the league standings.

Miami (14-14, 5-10) trailed just 27-20 at halftime, but were dreadful shooting the ball in the second half. The Hurricanes made only 4 of 21 attempts over the final 20 minutes and scored its fewest points since a 58-43 defeat against Louisville in December, 2005. London Perrantes and Malcolm Brogdon each scored a game-high 15 points to lead Virginia, with Perrantes’ total being a career high. Miami, which had a two-game winning streak snapped, was paced by Erik Swoope’s 13 points.

LSU 68, Texas A&M 49

The Tigers were last in the SEC in scoring defense, but it didn’t show Wednesday. A&M (16-12, 7-8) shot 30 percent from the field, including a 4 of 17 performance from three-point range, and LSU allowed its fewest points in 36 games, since beating South Carolina 64-46 in February, 2013.

Jarell Martin scored a game-high 20 points and Johnny O’Bryant added 15 for LSU (17-10, 8-7), which won its seventh consecutive game at home.

Jordan Green came off the bench and led the Aggies, who lost their seventh consecutive road game, with 12 points.

Tennessee 75, Mississippi State 68

Jordan McRae scored 29 points and added 10 rebounds in the Vols’ road win.

It was McRae’s seventh game of 25 or more points and it helped Tennessee (17-11) move over .500 in SEC play at 8-7. The host Bulldogs’ misery continued as the Starkville school, which began the year 13-5, dropped its tenth straight game and fell to 3-12 in league play.

Tennessee also got 14 points from Jarnell Stokes and 10 points and 11 rebounds out of Jeronne Maymon.

Roquez Johnson scored 19 points and reserve Fred Thomas added 18 for Mississippi State, which lost its fifth consecutive home game and hasn’t won at Humphrey Coliseum since its last overall victory January 22 against Auburn.

Mississippi 79, Alabama 67

The Rebels built a 17-point lead early in the second half and were rarely threatened in winning their fifth consecutive home game in the series.

Aaron Jones made a lay up 13 seconds into the second half to put Mississippi (17-11, 8-7 SEC) up 45-28, and though Alabama (11-17, 5-10) eventually got to within 64-58 on Trevor Releford’s lay up at the 6:13 mark, the margin never got lower than that the rest of the way.

Mississippi entered the night second in the SEC in three-point shooting, but made just 5 of 21 Wednesday, including a combined 3 of 14 from Marshall Henderson and Jarvis Summers. The Rebels instead made 19 of their 37 two-point attempts in dropping the Crimson Tide to 0-10 on the road.

Summers led all scorers with 20 points and Martavious Newby added 15 points and 10 rebounds off the bench. For Alabama, which hasn’t won in Oxford since February, 2009, freshman Shannon Hale exploded for a career-high 27 points, 10 more than his previous high set January 25 in a win over LSU.

Pittsburgh 66, Boston College 59

Talib Zanna, Lamar Patterson and Cameron Wright combined for 51 points on 58 percent shooting as the Panthers snapped a three-game losing streak.

Zanna led the way with 21 points on 7 of 10 shooting, while Patterson added 16 points (4 of 7 on threes) and Wright was 6 of 9 from the field for 14 points to pace Pittsburgh (21-7, 9-6 Atlantic Coast Conference).

Olivier Hanlan scored a game-high 25 points to lead Boston College (7-21, 3-12), which hasn’t won in the series since February, 2005 when both teams were members of the Big East Conference.

No. 19 North Carolina 85, North Carolina State 84

In a great individual battle, T.J. Warren outscored Marcus Paige by one point Wednesday. But thanks to Paige, his team was one-point better than Warren’s.

Paige had 10 of his 35 points in overtime, including the game-winning lay up with four seconds left in North Carolina’s 10th consecutive victory.

After Warren’s two free throws tied the game at 71-71 with two seconds left in the second half, he was excellent in the extra session as well. The ACC’s leading scorer picked up the first six points of overtime as N.C. State (17-11, 7-8) held a 77-71 advantage.

That’s when Paige got going. His 3-pointer helped North Carolina (21-7, 11-4) climb to within 77-74 and he hit another three at the 1:25 mark that kept the Tar Heels within three points at 82-79. It was an 83-79 game when Paige was 2 of 2 from the line, then James Michael McAdoo’s bucket pulled the teams even with 30 seconds left.

Warren was just 1 of 2 from the line, the last of his career-high 36 points, which set up Paige’s game-winner.

It was Warren’s eighth career 30-point game, and Paige’s second, topping the 32 points he scored against Louisville in November.

Auburn 83, South Carolina 67

Chris Denson scored 22 points to lead four in double figures in the Tigers’ home win.

Denson hit 8 of 11 shots, part of a 52 percent night for Auburn (13-13, 5-10), which defeated South Carolina for the fifth straight time.

Allen Payne added 15 points and Tahj Shamsid-Deen added 14 for Auburn, while Brenton Williams had a game-high 26 points to pace the Gamecocks (10-18, 3-12).