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6:25 p.m. -- Tech gets ball to D'Andre Bell, who is fouled. Hits both free throws for 57-54 lead with 11 seconds left. State's rushes ball up court and Javy Gonzalez gets a good look at 3-pointer from the right wing. Shot slightly long, and State's Farnold Degand flings rebound back to Gonzalez, whose desperation 26-footer at the buzzer falls well short. Ballgame.

6:23 p.m. -- Tech leads 55-54 with 12.4 left. Look for State to go for steal, then foul immediately and have a chance to win or tie with last possession.

6:21 p.m. -- Tech lets State hang around with so-so free-throw shooting. State down 55-51, with the ball, with 20 seconds left. Javy Gonzalez hits a 3-pointer with 12.4 left. State immediately calls its last timeout.

6:14 p.m. -- State's Farnold Degand fouled. Hits first free throw. Misses second, but Tech's Favors accidentally tips it in. 52-48 Tech with 1:03 left.

6:12 p.m. -- Refs sort it out. Favors hits 1-of-2 free throws for 50-46 lead. Tech keeps ball, inbounds to Favors, who scores inside and draws the fourth foul on Tracy Smith. Misses the free throw, but Tech leads 52-46 with 1:18 left.

6:09 p.m. -- After D'Andre Bell hits two free throws to put Tech ahead 49-46, State -- which hasn't scored in 3 minutes -- turns it over at midcourt when Iman Shumpert steals the ball from Javy Gonzalez. Ball sent ahead to Derrick Favors, and Gonzalez grabs his jersey from behind and slings him to the floor. Ugly intentional foul.

6:03 p.m. -- Tech's Iman Shumpert hits front end of one-and-one. Misses second, but Tech's Gani Lawal grabs rebound. Possession ends with Derrick Favors hitting an open 10-foot jumper and TEch leading 47-46 with 2:30 left.

5:56 p.m. -- Tech's Glen Rice Jr. hits both ends of a one-and-one to tie it at 44 with 4:28 left. Pack's Tracy Smith answers with a bucket in the paint. Shapiing up to be a great finish

5:46 p.m. -- Dennis Horner gives Pack a 42-40 lead with a rim-rocking follow-up dunk. State goes into full-court press, and Horner gets a foot on inbounds pass. Kicks it hard on a line-drive into the crowd, hits a woman hard in the head 20 rows deep. She's OK. But they don't let her keep the ball.

5:42 p.m. -- Iman Shumpert hits a 3-pointer in transtion after a blocked shot, then scores on a steal and layup to tie it at 40. State's in some serious foul trouble: Tracy Smith has 3, Richard Howell has 4.

5:37 p.m. -- Wolfpack 4-for-7 from 3-point range in second half, and playing better interior defense against Gani Lawal and Derrick Favors. Points in the paint now 18-16 Tech instead of lopsided. Pack still getting killed on the boards. Rebounds: Tech 33, State 20.

5:26 p.m. -- N.C. State opens second half with a 3-pointer from Scott Wood. That starts a 17-4 scoring run (12-0 to finish). Javy Gonzalez's pull-up 3-pointer puts Wolfpack ahead 36-33, prompts Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt to burn a timeout with 14:16 left to settle his guys down.

4:54 p.m. -- Georgia Tech leads 29-19 after a ghastly first half for N.C. State. With Tracy Smith in foul trouble (2), Wolfpack had nothing inside. So they shot jumper after jumper after jumper. Freshman Scott Wood was 1-for-2 from 3-point range. Rest of Pack was 0-for-10. State was just 9-for-30 from the floor, and Farnold Degand is its leading scorer with 6 points. Derrick Favors has 10 points and 7 rebounds for Tech, which was 10-for-24 from the floor. Moe Miller's 3-pointer after a timeout pushed the lead to 10.

4:29 p.m. -- Georgia Tech absolutely owns the lane so far. Jackets hold 14-7 rebounding edge (it was 8-1), they've blocked three shots and they've outscored State 10-2 in points in the paint. Tech leads 15-9 with 8:48 left in first half.

4:19 p.m. -- Uh-oh, State fans: Tracy Smith picks up his second foul just 5:17 into the game trying to defend Derrick Favors inside. That's not good. Smith, an All-ACC second-teamer is far and away the Wolfpack's most consistent offensive threat. He's replaced in the lineup by freshman Richard Howell, a kid with tremendous upside but who's a year away from being Tracy Smith.

4:16 p.m. -- So far, freshmen playing will in this one. State's Jimmy Chitwood, ...er, Scott Wood hits first jumper. Tech's Derrick Favors already has two inside buckets. Tech out to 7-4 lead.

4:14 p.m. -- 3 minutes, 3 fouls for N.C. State -- 1 apiece for Scott Wood, Tracy Smith and Dennis Horner trying to defend Georgia Tech's Gani Lawal and Derrick Favors inside.

4:01 p.m. -- N.C. State has been and gone for warmups. Georgia Tech, meanwhile, still shooting layups and jumpers with 4:15 left until introductions.

-- JEFF MILLS, Staff Writer