Price Is Right; Georgia Tech Beats Illinois

Mark Price took some extra target practice because his marksmanship had been slipping, and it paid off for Georgia Tech Thursday night even against the defensive prowess of Illinois.

Price bombed away from outside, with teammates Yvon Joseph and John Salley scoring from inside, as the sixth-ranked Yellow Jackets rode a second-half explosion to a 61-53 victory over the 12-ranked Illini in the NCAA East Regional semifinals.

“I went to Providence College on Wednesday and practiced shooting for 30 minutes,” said Price. “I got my shot back. It sure helped today.”

A 49 percent shooter throughout the season, Price had made just 11 of 27 field goal attempts in his first two tournament games. But he sank nine of 12 Thursday night and led Georgia Tech with 20 points.

Illinois’ defense was second in the nation in allowing opponents to hit just 41.5 percent of their field goal attempts. Only three teams had shot better than 50 percent against the Illini during the season, but the Yellow Jackets connected on 56.4 percent of their shots.

“It was hard to cover Price,” said Illinois Coach Lou Henson. “He was the key to the game. He hurt us early. He hurt us all game.”

Consecutive long jumpers by Price capped a 13-2 surge that boosted Georgia Tech to a 52-37 lead with 7:02 remaining. Then, Illinois’ Doug Altenberger picked up where Price left off, scoring his team’s next 14 points, mostly on deep shots.

“We got cold, they got hot and we hung on for dear life,” said Georgia Tech Coach Bobby Cremins. “We had a breakdown. Altenberger put on a show. I always thought Mark Price was the greatest shooter in college basketball, but Altenberger made me consider him.”

But Illinois could come no closer than four points and was hurt throughout the game by turnovers. The Illini had 19 to just 14 for Georgia Tech.

“We did not handle the ball that well,” Henson said. “Not to take anything away from Tech, but I thought only one player, Doug Altenberger, played up to par. We never really quite got it going.”

Georgia Tech broke a 29-29 halftime tie, grabbed a 15-point lead with 7:02 remaining and withstood Altenberger’s outside shooting that brought Illinois within 55-51 with 1:33 to go.

Georgia Tech, 27-7, will meet the winner of Thursday night’s second game between top-ranked Georgetown and No. 14 Loyola of Chicago in Saturday’s regional final.

Leading 39-35, Georgia Tech reeled off seven consecutive points, the first five by Joseph and the last two by Salley.

After Illinois’ Bruce Douglas sank two free throws to cut the gap to 46-37 with 10:16 to go, the Yellow Jackets took off on a six-point spurt. Salley, who had 14 points, started it with a stuff and Price, who scored 20 points, sank two deep jumpers to give Georgia Tech its biggest lead, 52-37.

The Fighting Illini, 26-9, had made 62 percent of their first-half fieldgoal attempts but just three of 12 while Georgia Tech was opening its 15-point advantage.

Altenberger, who led all scorers with 24 points, changed that when he began hitting consistently from the 16- to 20-foot range before fouling out with 1:25 remaining.

The Illini were forced to foul the rest of the way and Bruce Dalrymple, Price and Joseph completed the scoring with two free throws each for Georgia Tech.