Lewis Clinch's Confidence Clinches Upset for Georgia Tech

ATLANTA—Georgia Tech's Lewis Clinch just kept his senior season alive by leading the Yellow Jackets past No. 18 Clemson in the first round of the ACC tournament.

He did it convincingly; he did it confidently.

The game's 86-81 final score might tell the story of a hard-fought exchange that came down to the final seconds. The game's play-by-play would suggest that it was an up-for-grabs nail-biter to the end.  

But make no mistake—this game was over long before the final buzzer gave the hometown crowd a chance to breathe (and then cheer), at least in the mind of Lewis Clinch.

When asked what was going through his head while shooting the final free throws that clinched (pun fully intended) the game for Georgia Tech, Clinch responded, "Swish."

No thought. No hesitation. Swish.

The confidence that Clinch displayed in the postgame press conference wasn't arrogance by any means. It was the confidence of a player who just had the game of his life in front of a hometown crowd at a time when each game could be his last as a Yellow Jacket.

Clinch more than doubled his season average, and he did it by doing everything on the offensive end of the floor.  

Whether it was the five three-pointers, the game-changing old-fashioned three-point play with 1:01 remaining, or the two high-pressure free throws he swished with just seven seconds left in the game, the result was the same—Clinch delivered.

"I'm a shooter, hitting shots is what I'm supposed to do," Clinch said.  "My teammates did the hard part getting me open; hitting the shots was easy."

"It's not that easy," Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt said, trying to keep Clinch from downplaying his accomplishment.

But if scoring 32 points and guiding bottom-ranked Georgia Tech past a tough Clemson team wasn't easy, Lewis Clinch made it look that way on Thursday.