Will Finds a Way for Georgia Tech

Will Bynum ambled past a big screen set by a big Australian and then made his big move down under, scoring the game-winning basket with 1.5 seconds left Saturday to give Georgia Tech a 67-65 win over Oklahoma State before a crowd of 44,417 at the Alamodome.

Talk about cutting it close.

Georgia Tech (28-9) advanced to its first NCAA championship game on Monday after winning its fifth tournament game by 10 points or fewer.

The winning sequence, an isolation play primarily designed for Bynum after Oklahoma State guard John Lucas’ three-point basket tied the score with 26 seconds left, was beautifully executed.

Great call by the head coach, Paul Hewitt?

Not quite.

The play for Bynum was suggested by Yellow Jacket teammate Marvin Lewis, who had not contributed much else after scoring all his 15 points in the first half.

In the huddle during a crunch-time timeout, Lewis suggested to Hewitt he let the cat-quick Bynum loose in a one-on-one situation.

Never mind Hewitt recently agreed to a contract extension worth about $1 million per year.

Sometimes the smartest thing a coach can do is listen.

And Hewitt did.

“Because of his heart, his competitiveness, we felt that was the best option,” Hewitt said.

Georgia Tech ran a similar screen-and-roll play for Bynum with 1:23 left, with the Yellow Jackets up by three points, only that time Bynum botched the ending.

Lewis reasoned: “if we can get Will in the same position ... “

And so the biggest play in Georgia Tech basketball history was born.

Luke Schenscher, the 7-foot-1 center from Australia, who already had the game of his life with 19 points and 12 rebounds, moved to the top of the key and set a road block on Oklahoma State forward Ivan McFarlin.

Basic, workmanlike, Australian-type stuff.

“Everyone calls me the ‘Big Fundamental,’ ” Schenscher joked later.

Bynum grazed off the pick and found himself directly confronted by Lucas, desperately trying to hold ground. Bynum made a hesitation fake, blew by Lucas, and hung in the air before scoring his winning layup.

“This is the biggest shot I ever took in my life,” Bynum understated.

Lucas was nearly despondent. A week after making the game-winning three-point shot to beat Saint Joseph’s in the East Rutherford Regional finals, and only seconds after his three-pointer had tied Saturday’s game, Lucas found himself with the short stick.

“I just put all the blame on me,” Lucas said. “I was supposed to lock up, and I didn’t. That’s basically all you can say.”

It was a rough night for Lucas, the junior transfer from Baylor. Oklahoma State Coach Eddie Sutton had to make a defensive switch after Lewis made five first-half three-pointers, mostly with Lucas chasing.

“I’m not sure I’ve seen him play defense as poorly as he did today,” Sutton said in a blunt postgame assessment.

Sutton, though, was kicking himself for a decision he didn’t make -- subbing Lucas out in the end in favor of guard Janavor Weatherspoon, a better defensive player.

“We started to put Spoon in, we sure did,” Sutton said. “You can always second-guess yourself because Spoon is a better defender than John. If we had to do it over again, I’d probably put Spoon in.”

Lucas wasn’t the only problem.

Sutton was miffed his team allowed Georgia Tech to go on a 15-4 run late in the first half to take a seven-point lead at the intermission.

“I thought the game from our standpoint was lost in the first 20 minutes,” Sutton said.

Cowboy guard Tony Allen, the team’s leading scorer at 16.1 points per game, played only 11 minutes in the first half because of foul trouble.

Allen never got on track, as he was held to only five shot attempts and committed five turnovers.

Allen and Lucas, who combined to average 31.6 points per game, totaled only 24.

It didn’t help that Oklahoma State, lacking height in the middle with the 6-8 McFarlin and 6-7 Joey Graham, had no answer for Schenscher.

Schenscher, not considered all that coordinated or agile, had no trouble getting inside position on the smaller Cowboys, making nine of his 13 shots.

Georgia Tech did not trail at any point in the second half and led by as many as 12 points at 45-33.

In the closing minutes, however, Oklahoma State clamped down on defense and started to squeeze the score.

Hewitt recognized a familiar pattern.

“Just when we’re about to the point where we’re about to put our opponent away, they come right back at us,” Hewitt said.

Sure enough, Oklahoma State did. Two Graham free throws cut the lead to 65-61 with 2:28 left.

After Bynum missed the front end of a one-and-one, Lucas made one of two free throws to make it a 65-62 game, setting up the dramatic finish.

Lucas could only hope his game-tying three-pointer might compensate for an otherwise dismal day.

He scored only 11 points and made only four of 14 shots.

The worst was yet to come as Bynum flew past Lucas toward posterity and Georgia Tech sent Oklahoma State home after a 31-4 season that fell a few shots short.