The Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — Charles Mitchell was proud of how well he and Demarco Cox defended Wake Forest big man Devin Thomas.

Their combined work helped limit Thomas’ production and might have led Demon Deacons coach Danny Manning to bench his star forward for the game’s final 17 minutes.

Mitchell scored 15 points, Chris Bolden added 14 and Georgia Tech beat Wake Forest 73-59 for a rare ACC victory on Saturday.

Marcus Georges-Hunt finished with 13 points for the Yellow Jackets (11-12, 2-9 Atlantic Coast Conference).

If Manning is frustrated with some of his players, he wasn’t giving many details after the game.

Thomas, the ACC’s second-leading rebounder and the only conference player averaging a double-double in points and boards, finished with just six points and five rebounds in 19 minutes.

“I decided not to play him,” Manning said. “I liked what the other guys were doing better than what he was doing. I just made a coach’s decision to play other people.”

Manning did say that forward Greg McClinton was held out of his first game this season after violating team rules, but the coach declined to specify what happened or how much time he could miss.

The Deacons were outscored 22-9 in fastbreak points and 10-1 off turnovers.

TIP-INS

Wake Forest: Miller-McIntyre, a junior guard, began the game needing 13 points to reach 1,000 in his career, but missed his first five shots before hitting a reverse layup that made it 57-41 with 10:37 remaining. He finished 3 for 10 from the field and had his worst outing since scoring just five points in a home win over Georgia Tech last month.

Georgia Tech: Gregory improved his fourth-year ACC record to 18-45. … The Jackets have won 10 straight over Wake Forest at home and five of six in the series overall.

… The 1990 Final Four team, including Dennis Scott, Kenny Anderson, Brian Oliver and former coach Bobby Cremins, was introduced at halftime.