Georgia Tops Tech At McCamish

Tech is Tormented by Dogs’ Defense and Again Struggles to Score in 70-59 Loss

Georgia Tech came home to McCamish Saturday afternoon riding a tailwind powered by a road victory over a pretty decent Arkansas team just 3 days earlier. That victory came with some fresh strategizing from Coach Josh Pastner—changing out a couple of his starters, shortening the bench and dropping the rotation from 9 or 10 down to 7 or 8. But his new recipe did not bear fruit on Saturday against Georgia, for the most basic reason: his team could not score.

Early in the game, Tech’s offense struggled. 8 minutes into the game,Tech had only 5 points, 3 of those coming on free throws. That being said, Georgia had only 10, so there was still hope for the Yellow Jackets. But the Dogs began to pull away, pushing their lead to 25-9 at one point. Some Tech fans woooith memories for pain might have wondered if the halftime score was going to approximate the 38-7 deficit Georgia created 4 weeks earlier in a different sport. But with a late “surge” Tech found the means to pull to 29-19 at the half and went to the locker room feeling like they had a chance. Whether that feeling was realistic is questionable. The two players Tech has most relied on so far this season, Jose Alvarado and James Banks, were a combined 2 of 14 from the floor. The entire team wasn’t much better at 8 of 30 for 27%. The 3 point shooting, which was to be an offensive mainstay per Pastner, was 0 for 5.

All this offensive misery seemed to surprise Pastner to a degree. He said” we hang our hat in the defensive side, but I thought we’d be better shooting”. In his post-game remarks, Pastner noted that his team “struggles offensively and we end up relying on Jose.” The point being that Alvarado might press a bit if the scoring is sparse. On this lean day he would finish 3 of 20 from the field, including 0 for 6 from 3-point distance.

The lone bright spot for Tech on offense was freshman Michael Davoe who led his team with 14 points in 6 of 10 shooting. Davoe was deferential in his assessment of his play, saying “Coach told me to be aggressive.” Davoe also gave credit to Georgia’s defense. That sentiment was echoed by Pastner who noted Georgia’s 10 blocked shots, 6 of which came from center Nicolas Claxton. On multple possessions, Claxton and his frontcourt mates established a canopy of sorts which made drives to the hoop nearly impossible for Tech guards. And, as Pastner noted, ..” We don’t have that one guy who can go get us a bucket.”

Georgia coach Tom Crean noted that both he and Pastner are “building their programs.” Based on this game, Crean looks to be a good bit further along on his blueprint. Georgia Tech gets another chance to build when they face Kennesaw State at home on Friday.

Patrick Conarro