Tech takes down Syracuse
Yellow Jackets employ a tenacious defense to squeeze Orange, secure home win
Georgia Tech (10-11, 3-5) hosted Syracuse Orangemen (15-6, 4-4) Wednesday night at McCamish, holding on to win 55-51.
Two teams with good defenses and spotty offenses tangled in Atlanta, yielding the expected hard-fought, low-scoring affair, one that Tech Coach Josh Pastner called “a gutsy win for us.”
Syracuse came in seeking to build on a 3-game win streak, their last game a league road win at Pittsburgh on Saturday. The Jackets were looking to reverse a 4-game skid, including a tough home loss to Clemson 3 days earlier. In that game, Tech built an early double-digit lead that shriveled to only 2 at the half. Clemson then controlled the 2nd half pace to prevail 72-70.
Wednesday’s contest at the Pavilion looked eerily similar early on. Tech came out with good energy and tough defense to build an early lead that crept up to 8 points late in the first half. Tech controlled the pace, but Syracuse kept clawing away and trailed by only 3 at halftime.
The Orange used a sticky 2-3 zone to frustrate the home team, daring the Jackets to shoot over it, which they did only sporadically and with little success. Tech was 9 of 29 from the field in the first 20 minutes but clung to that lead thanks to only 5 turnovers, as well as their own defense which gave Syracuse fits. The Orange were just as weak on first-half shooting, hitting only 7 of 24, including a meager 1 of 7 from featured scorer Tius Battle. Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim would later admit “We were terrible on offense.” His Orange also donated 8 first-half turnovers to Tech’s cause.
At the half, you could get the notion that Syracuse would likely play a cleaner, more productive 2nd half. They did not, thanks to the relentless defensive effort Josh Pastner coaxed from his squad.
After a quick 8 points for Tech built an early 2nd half lead to 32-25, the visitors put on a charge of their own. They followed a dunk with a press, producing a quick steal and another dunk, bringing the deficit down to 3 and bringing the substantial number of Syracuse fans in the building to their feet.
It was a powerful momentum change and Tech seemed primed to cough up the lead. Instead, the Jackets responded with a controlled scoring possession, using Lammers from the high post to feed Tadric Jackson down low on the baseline for the score. And with that, the narrow Tech lead was bolstered and the Orange momentum was defused.
Pastner’s crew used that same play repeatedly to deal with the suffocating Syracuse zone. Lammers passing down low to a driving Jackson was productive and efficient, and as Jackson noted later, ” it was the exact same play each time.”
Jackson finished with 15 points on 7 of 12 shooting. His teammates were 14 of 51 ( 27 %) without his numbers. Other Tech leaders included Josh Okogie with 20 points and Ben Lammers who added 11 points to go with 12 rebounds.
Syracuse was led by Tius Battle with 19 of his team’s 51 point total. Boeheim noted that his team had 6 straight transitions in which they failed to score. “You can’t do any worse than that”, he said, complimenting Tech’s defense but noting that the Orange offense has been challenged all year.
For Tech, this was obviously a big win, drawing their league mark to 4-5 at the halfway point of the conference schedule.
Up next: Georgia Tech takes on Boston College in Chestnut Hill on Sunday, and Syracuse hosts Virginia on Saturday.