Georgia Tech didn’t shoot well from the perimeter, let a scorer get hot and was outplayed at game’s end. The outcome was the first defeat in coach Josh Pastner’s tenure, a 67-61 loss to Ohio Friday night at McCamish Pavilion.
The Yellow Jackets led 32-27 at halftime and still led at the 12-minute mark of the second half, but lost control of the game to a team far more experienced. A 9-2 run broke a 52-all tie and gave the Bobcats (3-0 overall) a 61-54 lead with 3:49 to play. The margin never got below three the rest of the way. Tech (2-1) will play its next game Tuesday at home against Sam Houston State.
Five observations from the game.
Ben Lammers has some endurance.
The center played 38 minutes, staying on the court for the entire second half. Without much depth behind him, coach Josh Pastner recognized before the season that Lammers would play far more than the 14.8 minutes he averaged off the bench last season, but perhaps not 38.
He finished with a team-high 22 points on 9-for-19 shooting and 11 rebounds, which tied with guard Josh Okogie for most on the team. He had four blocks, giving him 18 for the season.
“To be honest, I felt fine,” Lammers said. “I guess when you’re in the middle of a game, you don’t notice it as much, especially when it’s half-court. Obviously, a couple fast breaks, you’re really going to start feeling it, but in general I felt pretty good.”
Tech’s inexperience was exposed
Down 61-58 at the 2:47 mark after a Lammers dunk off a pretty feed from guard Justin Moore, the Jackets played tentatively down the stretch and only scored one point the rest of the way before a meaningless basket in the final seconds.
It should not necessarily rate as a surprise; the guards on the floor for the Jackets over the final 2:47 were two freshmen (Okogie and Moore), a senior who played 22 minutes last season (Corey Heyward) and junior Tadric Jackson, who was not typically on the floor in end-game situations in his first two seasons.
Tech felt the absence of point guard Josh Heath, a senior who started 21 games last season but is serving a four-game suspension for violating team rules. By comparison, Ohio was piloted by Jaaron Simmons, who was third in the country last year in assists per game.
“I don’t think there’s any mistake that going through it before helped us a lot there and I think Georgia Tech will do nothing but get better in that department,” Ohio coach Saul Phillips said.
Josh Okogie is a targeted player
After scoring 18 in both of his first games, the freshman guard from Snellville came up a little empty, held to five points on 2-for-13 shooting. The Bobcats game planned for him, and sometimes sent a second defender at him to reduce his space to maneuver. Ohio was particularly committed to retreating quickly in transition defense, making sure that more than one defender was back to defend Okogie and Jackson on fast breaks.
“I don’t think we could stay in front of them in a one-on-one competition,” Phillips said. “We needed more bodies in there.”
After scoring a combined 28 fast-break points in the first two games, the Jackets scored six Friday.
Okogie remained active with his 11 rebounds, three blocks and a steal along with three turnovers.
“I think his future is really bright,” Phillips said.
Ohio is no slouch
Certainly, losing a guarantee game is never ideal, but it didn’t rate a huge shock. Tech is a team that is rebuilding, and the Bobcats aren’t bad. Ohio was picked to finish second in its six-team division in the MAC and is a favorite to win the league championship. Last year, the Bobcats finished No. 86 in RPI, ahead of several power-conference teams. Forward Antonio Campbell is the reigning MAC player of the year.
“We’ll beat some people this year now and I don’t want people to get confused about what this means for the rest of Georgia Tech’s season,” Phillips said. “They’re going to be fine.”
Ohio got a boost from forward Kenny Kaminski, who scored all of his 15 points in the second half, all on 3-pointers.
“That was the big difference right there, Kaminski’s threes,” Pastner said.
Rough nights ahead
That said, the game gave some indication of what lies ahead for the Jackets. Without Lammers, who was 9-for-19, the Jackets shot 13-for-47 (27.7 percent). Pastner was not happy with the way the team finished at the rim and thought the team was stagnant.
“Offensively, I didn’t like our pace,” Pastner said. “If we’re not going to be a 3-point shooting team, which we haven’t been, we have to be able to get to the free-throw line a lot more.”
Tech was 14-for-19 from the free-throw line, falling short of its goal of having more made free throws than the opposition has attempts. Tech was 3-for-11 from 3-point range. Forward Quinton Stephens was 1-for-9.
“Something I noticed was that, even starting in warmups, they had a lot more energy going into it, and our guys missed a few layups and a few dunks that kind of just set a sloppy tone at the beginning, which I think made us get off to a rough start,” Lammers said.
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