Georgia Tech, Virginia aim to start ACC tournament run

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Georgia Tech and Virginia have pieced together enough stretches during the season to provide doses of encouragement.

They'll need to show the ability for sustained batches in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, beginning with their meeting in a second-round game on Wednesday. Both teams received byes in the first round.

"If we're going to make a run, it has to start on Wednesday," Georgia Tech coach Damon Stoudamire said.

Ninth-seeded Virginia (15-16) has lost four of its past six games.

Eighth-seeded Georgia Tech (16-15) had a three-game winning streak end with Saturday's 69-43 loss at Wake Forest. That was the season-low point total for the Yellow Jackets.

"Last month we played really well except for a couple of games," Stoudamire said. "We're in a good space. You've got to run off some games."

Virginia ended the regular season with a thud, falling 84-70 at Syracuse on Saturday night. The Cavaliers don't want their season to end on such a downer.

"That is just unacceptable," Virginia interim coach Ron Sanchez said. "We are better than that. ... Now it's time for postseason play, so there's got to be a level of excitement from all of us."

Freshman Jacob Cofie will play in his first ACC tournament for Virginia. He had a team-high 13 points in the Syracuse game, marking the third time this season he has been the Cavaliers' top scorer, including in the season opener.

"I think he's really important for us making a run," Sanchez said.

That could be the case because Cofie has been scoreless in three of the past six games. He had nine points and six rebounds in the first meeting with Georgia Tech, a 75-61 home victory on Feb. 8. Isaac McKneely scored 20 points for the Cavaliers.

Georgia Tech's Baye Ndongo, an All-ACC third team choice, is the only player from either team on any of the three All-ACC teams, consisting of 15 players in all. Ndongo averages 13.6 points and is fourth in rebounding in the ACC at 9.1 per game.

The winner has a quarterfinal matchup Thursday against No. 1-ranked Duke.

--Bob Sutton, Field Level Media