Baye Ndongo led Georgia Tech with 22 points and 12 rebounds Friday as the Yellow Jackets built a big lead and fought off a furious second-half Hawaii rally to advance to the final of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, ousting host and defending champion UH 73-68.
JoVon McClanahan kept the Rainbow Warriors in the game with 11 of his team-high 19 points in the first half.
Georgia Tech (8-3) meets Nevada in Sunday’s final. Jarod Lucas scored 25 points as the Wolf Pack beat TCU 88-75 in the other semifinal Friday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
UH fell to 8-3 heading into Sunday’s third-place game against TCU (9-2) at 1:30 p.m.
The Yellow Jackets outrebounded the Warriors 46-28. That included 23-9 in the first half, after which Georgia Tech led 43-27. The visitors expanded the lead to 21 points with 16:24 left.
But Hawaii rallied to close to 52-50 with 9:03 left, as Harry Rouhliadeff scored five points to lead a key part of the charge.
Then, Bernardo da Silva, who scored 17 points, made both ends of a 1-and-1 to give UH its first and only lead, 59-58 with 4:35 left.
Ndongo responded with consecutive low-post baskets, and Tech led 62-59 with 3:38 remaining. Ndongo was clutch twice more, with two free throws with 2:53 left, and a bucket in the low post at 1:55, before fouling out.
Da Silva closed the margin to 69-66 with 44 seconds left, and McClanahan made it 71-68 with 10 seconds left.
But Miles Kelly (14 points) helped the Yellow Jackets close the victory with a basket, and then two free throws with nine seconds left.
Naithan George also scored 14 for Georgia Tech, and Justin McKoy had 11 for UH.
Old Dominion beat Temple 78-63 in a consolation bracket game. Another consolation game, between UMass and Portland, got underway after the Georgia Tech-Hawaii game.
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