Jerome Richard / Times-News

GREENSBORO – North Carolina State played the last game of the day during each of the first three rounds of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament. It came tantalizingly close to playing in the tournament’s last game, the one for the championship that would be its only hope of making the NCAA Tournament.

Playing on guts and fumes in the semifinals on Saturday afternoon, the Wolfpack fought to the last tick of the clock before falling to Georgia Tech 57-54.

The loss ended an improbable tournament run for N. C. State that may have ended with it becoming the first 11th seed to advance to the championship game had it made better decisions and capitalized on its opportunities.

“Let me express how proud I am of our team – the effort of this weekend that we gave,” North Carolina State coach Sidney Lowe said. “We didn’t do well (Saturday). We didn’t shoot well – 30 percent, 52 percent from the free throw line and we lose by three points. We certainly had the opportunity, but we just couldn’t finish it off.”

The Wolfpack came close though, despite shooting 23.1 percent from 3-point land and getting beat on the defensive glass 35-23.

N.C. State (19-15) almost overcame a five-point deficit in the last 31 seconds only to watch Javier Gonzalez desperation 3-pointer fall short seconds before the buzzer sounded.

“I thought I had a good look,” said Gonzalez.

Gonzalez committed two turnovers doing most of the ball handling against the Yellow Jackets, but one with 1:29 remaining was critical to the outcome.

Trailing 49-46 after going scoreless for nearly three minutes, Gonzalez was stripped at mid court by Iman Shumpert, who fed the ball to Derrick Favors. Gonzalez intentionally fouled Favors, who had a clear path to the basket. The freshman made 1 of the 2 shots for a 50-46 lead.

“I used the ball screen and I got hit a little bit on the arm and lost control of the ball,” Gonzalez said. “I saw it was Favors, and he’s shooting like 50 percent from the free throw line. The only thing I was able to do was grab his jersey.”

Favors, who tallied a game-high 17 points, hit underneath seconds later for a 52-46 cushion.

C. J. Williams tipped in Farnold Degand’s missed free throw with 1:18 to play for N.C. State’s first points since the 4:12 mark, pulling the Wolfpack within 52-48.

Georgia Tech (22-11) opened a 55-49 advantage before Degand hit two free throws and Gonzalez nailed a trey with 12.6 remaining to make it 55-54.

D’Andre Bell was fouled on the inbound pass and the Georgia Tech senior sank both free throws.

Gonzalez had a good look at a 3 with about a second to play, but it clanged off the rim. The rebound was heaved to the backcourt where Gonzalez left fly a desperation trey that was well short of the mark.

Georgia Tech also made an improbable run to the championship game, where it faces Duke, knocking off No. 2 Maryland. The Yellow Jackets are the second No. 7 seed to make it to the title tilt and looks to become the first seventh seed to win the tournament.

The Yellow Jackets pounded to ball inside to Favors and Gani Lawal to build a 29-19 halftime lead. It drifted away from the inside game at times in the second half, before going back to it down the stretch.

“I didn’t think we were as persistent (in the second half) as we were in the first half trying to get the ball inside,” Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt said. “They (N. C. State) got some energy from that. We talked about … not to be cautious, not to play conservative.  I thought we were doing a good job getting it in, so we talked about limiting the threes and throw it inside.”