Hofstra Has Golden Moment at Garden

The game against Georgia Tech in the opening round of the ECAC Holiday Festival in New York was the one Hofstra had been looking forward to all season.

Now it will go down as one of the biggest victories in school history.

The Flying Dutchmen defeated Georgia Tech, 61-42, Saturday as Norman Richardson matched his career high with 23 points.

“Playing over the holidays in Madison Square Garden and against Georgia Tech no less, it doesn’t get any better,” Hofstra Coach Jay Wright said. “Our players are all New Yorkers and were good high school players and they expected to win this game more than I did.”

The victory was the fourth in a row for Hofstra (6-4), but it was arguably the biggest for the Long Island school since defeating Temple in the East Coast Conference championship game in 1976.

“We came out sky high and we thought we had a chance to win,” Richardson said. “We beat a great team and we feel good about ourselves winning in Madison Square Garden. It’s special.”

Over its last five games, Georgia Tech (8-3) has rallied for an overtime victory over archrival Georgia, played poorly in a win over Wofford, lost (80-39) to No. 3 Kentucky, defeated No. 7 North Carolina (66-64) and lost to Hofstra.

“Sometimes if you try and figure things like this out all it does is drive you crazy,” Georgia Tech Coach Bobby Cremins said. “That wasn’t our team that played the last game.”

Alvin Jones led Georgia Tech with 12 points, 12 rebounds and six blocked shots.

In today’s championship game, Hofstra will play Penn, which beat Iona, 67-61.

Jed Ryan scored seven of his 19 points over the final 4:35 to lead Penn (3-2) past Iona (4-6).

No. 16 Clemson 67, Furman 54--Harold Jamison had 16 points and 16 rebounds to lead the Tigers at Greenville, S.C.

Jamison, who leads Clemson in shooting percentage (.778) and rebounding, seemed to be near every loose ball. He had 12 rebounds by halftime and shot seven for 10--mostly from three feet or less--as Clemson (11-1) won its eighth consecutive game and 23rd in a row over the Paladins (6-4).

“I’ve been playing with these guys for three years,” Jamison said about his teammates. “I can see when they shoot it by the rotation where it’s going to come off. I’m able to read all that.”

Stanislav Makshantsev led Furman with 18 points.

OTHER GAMES

Shawnta Rogers had 24 points and, with 11 assists, set a school career assists record for George Washington in a 91-71 victory over Bradley at Washington. Rogers recorded the 499th assist of his four-year career, breaking the previous record set by Alvin Pearsall from 1990-94. Andry Sola scored 19 points and Mike King 14 for George Washington (5-4), which had lost three of four. Eric Roberson led Bradley (6-3) with a career-high 22 points. The Braves, who had won three in a row, had 21 turnovers.