No. 11 BC goes cold from field, loses to Ga. Tech

ATLANTA (AP) -- Zam Fredrick didn't pause to consider what the

shot meant. All that mattered was having an open look at the basket

from 3-point range.

Fredrick hit the tiebreaking shot with 33.5 seconds left Sunday

and Georgia Tech held on for a 60-58 victory over No. 11 Boston

College, which went more than 11 minutes without a field goal and

struggled to make anything from beyond the lane.

Anthony Morrow set up the 3 by driving the baseline, where he

drew an extra defender. Georgia Tech's top scorer spotted Fredrick

lingering outside the arc and hurled a long pass to his teammate,

who swished the open jumper.

"When I took that shot, I didn't think about the situation,"

Fredrick said. "I try to treat every shot the same way. I just

knew we needed a basket and I was open. It just happened to put us

up by three with less than a minute to go. It was a big shot."

Craig Smith tried his best to carry the Eagles by himself,

scoring 26 points. He tied the game at 55 on a free throw with 55.5

seconds left.

Boston College (11-3, 0-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) had a

couple of chances to stay alive after Fredrick's 3. Tyrese Rice

missed on a drive, but teammate Louis Hinnant corralled the rebound

to give the Eagles another opportunity. Rice tried a 3-pointer with

Morrow in his face, came up short and Georgia Tech got the rebound.

Jeremis Smith made one of two free throws with 5.9 seconds left

to essentially seal the victory. Craig Smith hit a running 3 at the

top of the key -- one of only five shots the Eagles made outside the

lane -- but it wasn't enough.

"When you try to do everything you can and still come up with

an 'L,' you feel bad," said Smith, who went 10-of-13 from the

field and played all but a minute. "Some bad shots near the end

hurt us."

Rice didn't feel bad about his last two shots, even though

neither went through the hoop.

"It felt good. It looked good," he said. "I'm not going to

shy away from a game-winning shot. If I make it, I make it."

Jeremis Smith led Georgia Tech (8-4, 2-0) with 16 points and

nine rebounds. The Yellow Jackets won for the fifth time in six

games after getting off to a slow start with a young, rebuilding

team.

"Today, we can have a little swagger about ourselves," Smith

said. "We've been saying since the beginning of the season that we

were going to be a good team. But we're just getting to the place

where our expectations were."

Morrow, who scored 15 points, wasn't surprised that Fredrick

made the biggest shot of the game, even though the sophomore point

guard has struggled at times in his first season as a starter.

"I knew somebody had to be open, and the first guy I saw was

Zam," Morrow said. "I knew he would knock it down. He told me he

was thirsty for that shot."

Even though Boston College had won five in a row, the Eagles

find themselves in an early hole in the ACC. They're already

looking ahead to a rematch against Georgia Tech on Jan. 29.

"It's going to be payback," Rice said. "We have to get them

when they come to our place."

The Yellow Jackets went more than 5 minutes without a point

early in the game, and Boston College jumped out to a 21-13 lead on

Jared Dudley's short jumper in the lane with 9:06 left in the first

half.

Amazingly, the Eagles didn't make another field goal the rest of

the period, going nearly 5½ minutes without scoring and finally

resorting to powering the ball inside in an attempt to draw fouls.

They went 5-for-8 at the free-throw line in the final 3:40 of the

half and trailed 29-26 at the break.

Boston College missed its first two shots of the second half as

well, finally breaking its skid when Dudley slipped inside for a

lay-in with 18:02 left.

The Eagles went 11:04 without a field goal, though their final

shooting numbers (45.8 percent) didn't look too bad because they

managed to do plenty of scoring on dunks, layups and short jumpers.

"We were concentrating on stopping Craig Smith," Jeremis Smith

said. "I guess we didn't accomplish that. But at the same time, we

were playing good perimeter defense. I'm very proud of that."

The Yellow Jackets focused mainly on stopping Sean Marshall

(1-for-10) and Rice (3-of-9) from the outside.

"We had a good scouting report," Fredrick said. "We knew who

they wanted to get the ball to. We knew who their shooters were and

who we could leave alone."

Boston College was 4-of-16 from 3-point range. Dudley had 14

points and Rice 10, but no one else on the Eagles scored more than

three. One of those was Marshall, who was averaging 14.8 per game.

Georgia Tech was more balanced, with six players scoring between

six and 16 points. The Yellow Jackets also controlled the boards,

outrebounding the Eagles 33-23.