WASHINGTON - This was no upset.
Georgia Tech basketball coach Paul Hewitt reiterated that point again and again after his Yellow Jackets knocked off North Carolina, 78-75 on Saturday, in the semifinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.
Never mind that the Tar Heels (27-4) won the ACC regular-season championship and are arguably the best team in the country. So is Georgia Tech, at least in its coach's opinion.
It just took the Yellow Jackets (19-10) several months to finally perform up to expectations.
"I've been saying it all year, we have a good basketball team," Hewitt said following the victory. "These are two great teams, and our team, being a team that has accomplished an awful lot at big moments, to be written off was kind of amusing to me."
Nobody else is laughing after Saturday's win at MCI Center - especially the coaches, players and fans of any team that might face Georgia Tech the rest of this postseason. The Yellow Jackets roll into today's ACC tourney title game against Duke with three consecutive wins.
And more important, they're getting the kind of clutch performances that have long put the madness into March.
Will Bynum, who established a reputation as a big-game player in last year's NCAA Tournament, starred for the Jackets on Saturday.
The senior from Chicago scored a career-high 35 points in the best single-game performance by a Georgia Tech player in ACC Tournament history. His play made up for an off night by B.J. Elder, who went without a field goal Saturday after scoring 19 points in Friday's quarterfinal victory over Virginia Tech.
Many of Bynum's points came at crucial times. He scored 12 points during a 3-minute stretch in the second half to single-handedly counter a North Carolina run. Then, he calmly sank two game-clinching free throws with 9 seconds left.
"Once I made my first 3-pointer, I pretty much felt good," said Bynum. "Everything else was just open."
And his teammates kept feeding him the ball. Elder took just four shots - he played only 17 minutes because of foul trouble - and Luke Schenscher was the only other Georgia Tech player to score more than six points.
Eight of Schenscher's 15 points came on rebound baskets. He added 10 rebounds to finish with a double-double and outplayed North Carolina's star center, Sean May, for most of the game.
May had 17 points and 11 rebounds, while Rashad McCants and Raymond Felton also scored 17 points each.
Reach Adam Van Brimmer at (404) 589-8424 or adam.vanbrimmer@morris.com.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2012 Morris Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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