Akins, Tech Sting UNC After Half

"22."

He was Georgia Tech's Tony Akins, who exploded for 22 points and four assists in the second half of Saturday's men's basketball game to lead the Yellow Jackets to a 86-74 victory against the Tar Heels in front of 6,550.

The loss dropped UNC (6-13, 2-7 in the ACC ) into a tie for last place in the conference with Georgia Tech (8-14, 2-7) and Clemson (11-11, 2-7). It also could be a possible derailment of a two-game stretch where the Tar Heels had been doing things better.

"I don't think that is a fair game to measure our improvement by today," said UNC coach Matt Doherty. "We just played less than 36 hours ago against a tough Duke team and had to turn around and play an active Georgia Tech team.

"I'm not making any excuses for our team today, but at the same time, I looked at this game on the schedule early this year and knew that it was going to be a tough one to play."

The Tar Heels lost to top-ranked Duke 87-58 on Thursday, but shot 50 percent from the floor. Against Clemson on Jan 27, UNC hit 55.4 percent of its shots and only turned the ball over 10 times.

It took almost 2 1/2 minutes for North Carolina to make a basket Saturday after missing its first three shots. Melvin Scott's 3-pointer was the first of five the Tar Heels would make to build a 15-9 lead with 12:52 remaining in the first half.

Georgia Tech closed the gap and then took a 18-17 lead on a Marvin Lewis layup. Tech stretched its lead to as many as seven before a 16-8 North Carolina put the Tar Heels on top as the half ended. It was only the sixth time all year that UNC entered its locker room on top.

As the Yellow Jackets entered theirs, Akins had a dismal line. One of 9 from the floor, 0 of 5 from behind the arc. Six points. Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt told his leading scorer to keep his head up.

"Basically, (he said,) 'Have confidence,'" said Akins, who averaged 15.8 points a contest going into Saturday's game. "'Just play basketball. Keep the team together.'"

Said Hewitt after the game: "He's going to keep shooting. We just wanted to make sure he took better shots. He took some good shots in the first half, but we wanted him to take better shots."

Mission accomplished.

The Yellow Jackets started the second with a 16-5 run in the first six minutes of the half where Akins hit two 3s and had three assists.

Akins sank 4 of 5 3-pointers in the second half but also used Kris Lang's absence inside - Lang sat for 6 minutes, 24 seconds because of foul trouble -- to his advantage. With 3:46 left, he drove to the basket and scored a layup despite Morrison's defensive pressure.

"One, I think you know he's going to start making some shots," said Doherty of Akins' second half. "Two, we miscommunicated a bit on some pick and rolls and three, in transition, you have to find him early. We found him late and he got some open 3s."

With both the Tar Heels and the Yellow Jackets having their roughest seasons in memory -- Tech's senior forward Michael Isenhour is undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia and the Jackets only captured their first ACC win on Wednesday -- there is a chance that the two teams could tangle again in the play-in game of the conference tournament.

"Oh sure," said Doherty when asked if he's thought about the play-in game. "You don't want to play in that game. But you try to use that as a form of motivation."

The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.