Georgia
Zackery's 21 points lead Clemson in 70-59 victory over Georgia Tech
In what Clemson defines as GRIT after dark, the Tigers and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets might as well have hit snooze for the first half of this 9:00 PM tipoff.
Both teams were groggy early on, but Clemson (14-4, 6-1 ACC) finally shook off the cobwebs to secure a 70-59 victory Tuesday night at the McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta.
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Jaeden Zackery was the spark plug for the Tigers, leading the team with 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting. He also grabbed six rebounds and three steals, putting relentless pressure on Georgia Tech’s guards all night.
His defensive tenacity wore down a thin Yellow Jackets (8-10, 2-5 ACC) rotation, which saw only seven players hit the court—and just six for the majority of the game.
Ian Schieffelin sealed the game with a dagger three-pointer to end a late 9-0 Georgia Tech run.
Schieffelin stuffed the stat sheet with 16 points, seven rebounds, six assists, and four steals, bouncing back in a big way after a two-point outing against Florida State.
While the Tigers had a game-high 19-point lead with 8:27 left, they let Georgia Tech crawl back into it, allowing the Yellow Jackets to cut the lead to single digits late. Clemson’s defense, however, held firm, and Schieffelin’s timely shot put the game out of reach.
Clemson’s offensive balance was key, with four players scoring in double figures.
Chase Hunter contributed 14 points, going a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line despite a rough 3-for-9 shooting night from the field.
Viktor Lakhin added 10 points and six rebounds, though he struggled from beyond the arc, missing all four of his attempts.
Clemson’s bench managed just two points in 34 minutes, a rare off night.
Both teams came out ice cold. Georgia Tech missed its first six three-point attempts and started 1-for-12 from the field, managing only two points in the game’s first nine minutes.
Clemson didn’t fare much better early, missing its first six threes and shooting just 4-for-14 to start. Despite the sluggish opening, the Tigers managed an 8-2 lead by the under-12 media timeout.
By the final buzzer, Clemson had improved its shooting numbers, finishing 23-for-52 from the field (44.2%), 8-for-23 from deep (34.8%), and 16-of-20 from the free throw line (80%).
Georgia Tech ended the night shooting 35.2% from the field and 35% from three, going 19-for-54 and 7-for-20, respectively.
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The win moved Brad Brownell to 22-9 all-time against the Yellow Jackets.
While it wasn’t the prettiest win, in the grind of ACC basketball, style points don’t matter. The Tigers made the plays when it counted, now looking ahead to their next challenge.
And it’s a big one.
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Clemson sits tied with Louisville for second in the ACC standings, with a crucial road test ahead against the Pittsburgh Panthers.
Pitt, coming off its second ACC loss of the season—against Louisville, the team that handed the Tigers their lone conference defeat—will be eager to bounce back.
With the race to catch Duke intensifying, this game is key for the future of both teams.
Tipoff is scheduled for 12:00 PM on January 18 at the Petersen Events Center, with the game set to air on the CW Network.
TODAY: BIG DEALS on a ton of Clemson gear at The Tiger Fan Shop HERE!
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Kirk Fordice-like Rick Jackson is sounding a whole lot like Daniel Kirkwood Fordice as he tries to be elected Georgia’s next governor.
Fordice came out of nowhere — actually, Vicksburg is somewhere but you know what I mean — in 1991 to become a two-term Mississippi governor.
He had money but nothing like Jackson, a billionaire businessman who’s also trying to emerge from nowhere politically to win Georgia’s top office.
“The establishment hated Trump, because they couldn’t control him. They are going to hate me,” Jackson says in an ad for Georgia’s Republican Primary on May 19, sounding like one of my favorite Mississippi governors — Fordice, because of his unpredictable personality (he could vilify or charm you, all in one sentence), not his politics. He died in 2004 of cancer.
I stood by a cafe entrance one morning, waiting to cover a Fordice speech. When he appeared, I stuck out my hand to shake his. “I’m not shaking your damn hand. You’re part of the problem down there (referring to the newspaper),” he told me, smiling and moving on.
Jackson rose to become one of economic giant-Georgia’s wealthiest people. He came from Atlanta’s rough midtown area, ending up in the foster care system. He left college due to poor financial circumstances.
The 71-year-old Jackson wormed his way into the dynamic city’s business scene in the late 1970s, mostly of the healthcare variety with mixed success before starting a workforce staffing and services company and later an antibiotics manufacturing plant. He turned those businesses into billion-dollar enterprises.
“It’s God’s money,” he said in rural Blakely, and he’s been charitable with it.
Jackson doesn’t try to hide his vast wealth. His family lives in a 48,000-square-foot mansion at Cumming, a place of nearly 100,000 people near Atlanta in Forsyth County, which once promoted its almost all-white population as a virtue.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Bill Torpy recently wrote that Jackson will spend a ton of his own money in seeking another mansion, the one occupied by Georgia’s governor. Torpy noted that present Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was once heavily favored to win the primary race, but he’s fallen behind Jackson’s bold money bid.
“The one-time front-runner in the Republican primary (Jones) has been relegated to No. 2, the result of a $100 million Mack truck running him over.
Rick Jackson, a billionaire healthcare tycoon, a man with a sly smile and reptilian gaze, is the guy driving that truck,” Torpy wrote.
The GOP field includes Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, who spurned Trump’s demand to find 11,780 votes that would’ve allowed him to win Georgia in 2020.
Fordice was effective with some bombastic rhetoric during his run for governor, but I don’t remember it reaching the histrionic level employed by Jackson. In a major ad blitz, often referencing (Georgia college student) Laken Riley’s murderer, Jackson promises that unauthorized immigrants committing violent crimes will be “deported or departed … any questions?”
In another ad, Jackson growled, “Like President Trump, I don’t owe anybody anything, and like you, I’m sick of career politicians.”
Fordice spent only $1 million to get himself elected Mississippi’s governor. He somewhat sneaked up on the establishment, riding no escalator to the first floor of his Vicksburg concrete river mats-contracting office to declare his intentions. Who could ever forget his announcement seeking the governorship that ran on page 5 of the Clarion Ledger?
Recent polling ahead of Georgia’s May primaries for governor shows the eventual Republican nominee faces a strong Democrat in the November general election, most likely former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. That’ll require another whole pot of money.
— Mac Gordon, a native of McComb, is a retired Mississippi newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.
Gulfstream recently announced a $5 million investment in Georgia education, welcoming students and leaders to its Savannah headquarters.
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