Vols beat buzzer to slide past Georgia Tech in Peach Bowl Classic

When the half-court prayer left Jon Higgins hands Sunday at the Peach Bowl Classic in Atlanta against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets with fractions of a second left in the game, Tennessee basketball fans had already accepted another heartbreaking loss in the waning seconds of the regulation.
But then a miracle happened. Higgins shot hit nothing but net and that was it, the game was over. The hard luck Vols who had been at the other end of such last second heroics so many times during the 2001/02 season, had finally seen their string of bad luck turn.
Higgins, a senior captain, said that he had never hit a shot like that in his life.
“No, not even in high school,” he said during a post-game radio interview. “Ron (Slay) did a good job of getting me the inbounds pass and I guess I just got lucky.”
Tennessee shooters had the hot hand early in the game, shooting 65% in the first half, but 16 turnovers led to the Yellow Jackets holding a 35-32 advantage at the break.
The Vols continued to have trouble getting over the hump throughout most of the second half and Georgia Tech held a 62-49 lead with seven minutes left in the game.
At that point the Volunteer’s finally got hot on the offensive end and held Georgia Tech without a field goal the rest of the way.
Freshman point-guard C.J. Watson capped a 15-2 Vol run with a three-pointer at the 1:52 mark.
Tech scored the rest of their points at the foul line. The Yellow Jackets had built a 68-65 lead after a made free throw with 1.4 seconds remaining. In an effort to keep Higgins from tying the game with a three-pointer, Tech chose to quickly foul the usually reliable free throw shooter. Higgins nailed his first attempt and in an effort to miss his second shot, saw the ball bounce off the glass and through the goal.
The UT strategy was for Higgins to intentionally miss the second free throw and for Slay or one of the other Vols positioned under the goal to slide by the Tech box out and get a tip-in.
Tech was positioned to throw the ball in from under the goal with almost a sure fire win in their pockets.
That’s when all of the right things started to happen for the Vols. Higgins fouled a Yellow Jacket player on the inbounds attempt before the ball could be thrown in.
The first Tech free throw was off the mark. If the second shot had missed, the Vols would have never been able to pull down the rebound and get the ball up court in time to get off the shot. As luck would have it, the second free throw was good making the score 69-67.
The 6’-8” Slay held the ball under the goal and faked to his left before running under the goal down the baseline and hitting Higgins with a strike at the mid-court line. Higgins lofted up the shot a split second before the buzzer sounded. The shot hit nothing but net and the Vol bench came running onto the court to finally celebrate an ending that had eluded them for so long.
Overshadowed by the heart-stopping finale was the play of senior forward Ron Slay who had his best game since returning to the lineup with 28-points and 12 rebounds in 36 minutes. Slay was 11-18 from the field and 3-3 from behind the arc.
Watson looks to be getting more comfortable, scoring 12-points, handing out five assists and pulling down five rebounds in a team high 37 minutes. Higgins, getting a break from playing point with the emergence of Watson, finished the game with 16-points and six assist in 34 minutes.