Georgia Tech Falls to Gardner-Webb
Yellow Jackets Suffer From Weak Defense, Poor Shooting in Home Loss
Georgia Tech got run by the Running Bulldogs of Gardner-Webb 79-69 Monday night at McCamish. Tech looked a little distracted and a little unfocused from the outset– and things never got much better. Tech Coach Josh Pastner said he could see a lack of the usual energy a day before tipoff. He warned his players to pick up the pace, knowing they were to face a team that is talented and well-coached. Nonetheless, Tech’s energy level remained low, especially on defense where Gardner-Webb enjoyed good early access to the hasket and built a 7 point halftime lead, largely on the efforts of forward DJ Lester. He scored 20 first-half points on 10 of 13 shooting, mostly down low.
That ability to get inside and to finish drew praise from Bulldogs coach Tim Craft.”Proud of our guys from start to finish”..said the Garner-Webb coach. He called the road victory over an ACC opponent a boost for the visibilty of the program as well as the school, a private institution of 4500 students in Boiling Springs, SC.
That 45-38 halftime deficit would have been much worse for Tech if not for a scoring spurt from Curtis Haywood who hit four 3-pointers to help keep Tech close. Even so, Tech players couldn’t quite get out of their own way. The final 8 secinds of the half told the story. With Tech trailing by 3 Brandon Alston was called for reaching in , committining Tech’s 6th foul. On inbounding the ball, the Bulldogs were fouled again, this time by Shembari Phillips, yielding 2 free-throws for the visitors. With now only a few seconds left, Tech turned the ball over and allowed The Bulldogs to hit a buzzer- beating layup to take the halftime lead to 7.
Unfortunately for Tech, the Bulldogs clamped down on Haywood in the 2nd half. He was scoreless after halftime. Offensively the Jackets were led by James Banks with 22 and Jose Alvarado with 19. Haywood was the only other Tech player in double figures. The Tech bench in total produced only 8 points, 6 of which came from Khalid Moore.
“We weren’t as focused as we should have been” Alvarado said post-game, citing the same issue his coach had noticed. Pastner added that a team that emphasizes defense is in trouble when the defense goes soft. ” We were going to rely on our defense–it let us down today” he said, adding that a poor shooting night only made things worse.
“I thought we’d be a better shooting team than we are right now.” he said. He specifically noted that Alvarado, Alston and Devoe all look productive in practice shootaround, but that has not translated to games. The 3-point shooting was particularly rough (6 of 23), which doesn’t bode well for a team and a coach who planned on making long- distance shooting a mainstay of their offense this year.
Gardner-Webb, on the other hand, shot 31 for 59 for the game with 48 points coming from the paint.
“We were playing hard” Pastner said, and his team displayed obvious effort. But that effort too often led nowhere, as illustrated by a Tech possession at the 10 minutemark of the 2nd half. Tech used almost frenetic perimeter passing to try to find an open shot, to no avail. The play ended in fall-away 3 point attempt from Alston that barely found glass about a foot past the hoop as the shot clock sounded.
Georgia Tech (5-4) takes on Arkansas Wednesday night in Fayetteville, in what will be an even stiffer test.
Patrick Conarro
RamblinSports