ATLANTA – That signature victory against an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent narrowly eluded Bethune-Cookman once again Sunday night, with the Wildcats dropping a 68-65 decision to Georgia Tech.

Bethune-Cookman led for 21 minutes and tied the game at 65 on a Cletrell Pope dunk with 28 seconds remaining, but Georgia Tech's Michael Devoe registered a three-point play with seven seconds left to help the Yellow Jackets survive a terrible free throw shooting night.

The Yellow Jackets (3-2) made just 9-of-19 free throws in the second half.

Pope posted his 29th career double-double with 20 points and 19 rebounds and the Wildcats (5-3) nearly pulled off what would have been one of the biggest upsets since the program transitioned to Division I in 1980. BCU has taken Georgia Tech to the wire twice and Miami once during Head Coach Ryan Ridder's tenure.

After jumping out to an early 20-10 lead, Bethune-Cookman led 36-34 at halftime, and the teams traded the lead several times through the second half.

Isaiah Bailey added 12 points, Joe French nine and Wali Parks eight for the Wildcats, who outrebounded the Yellow Jackets 40-32, 20 of those boards on the offensive side.

The Wildcats play at Stetson Tuesday.

HEAD  COACH RYAN RIDDER

"I'll tell you what I told my team - I'm really, really proud to be their coach. And not because a win or a loss or because we competed. But as a coach you love your guys to emulate playing the right way. I thought tonight and this season we've had guys who are putting winning above themselves. We have guys with individual statistics, but we're an unselfish group. We're fun to coach. We play really hard. We don't care who gets the credit. As I sit up here and say that, I could not be more proud to be the coach of Bethune-Cookman University. But at the same time, it stings. We came here to win. That's what we told our guys. We didn't come here to compete and get a moral victory. I've got unbelievable respect for Georgia Tech and coach [Josh] Pastner, but we came in here to try and get a W and give ourselves a chance down the stretch. Unfortunately, we just didn't make enough plays on that defensive side late."

On Bethune-Cookman's rebounding advantage:
"We preached three things in our program: defense, rebounding and toughness. If you told me we were going to have 20 offensive rebounds tonight, I probably would not have agreed with you. But I was really proud, specifically with Cletrell Pope, of our guys continuing to attack. We couldn't put the ball in the bucket but we had guys continue attack that glass."

On the challenges of defending Cletrell Pope:
"It's the weirdest thing. I've never coached somebody like him. He's got great motor number one. He plays really hard… he's really wiry and strong. He's got a great second bounce. He's just relentless. When the shot goes up, it's like an all-you-can-eat buffet. He sees that out there and he just wants to get as much as he can. He was special tonight for us."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.