With a defensive effort that took Nebraska out of its game, Georgia Tech played perhaps its best game without point guard Jose Alvarado in a 73-56 win Wednesday night at McCamish Pavilion.
On the defensive end, the Yellow Jackets made possessions difficult for Nebraska. Shots at the rim were challenged, often blocked, and their 1-3-1 zone defense did its usual work in disrupting the Cornhuskers’ perimeter shooting.
“They do a good job with that (zone),” Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said. “It is a zone you don’t see very often.”
In limiting Nebraska to 32.3 percent shooting and creating 18 turnovers, the Yellow Jackets created the space they needed to control a game in which the offense was still erratic with Alvarado sitting out his third consecutive game (and fourth overall) with an ankle sprain.
“That’s who we are,” coach Josh Pastner said. “And there’s just going to be some rough patches offensively as we all know until Jose gets back. That’s just kind of the deal.”
In the annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge, Tech (4-2) contributed a win to the conference total to improve its all-time record in the event to 8-11. Nebraska (4-4) lost in its first true road game of the season.
In Hoiberg’s first season, the Cornhuskers had come into the game averaging 75.7 points while depending heavily on its 3-point shooting. The Cornhuskers had shot 34.2 percent from 3-point range and 44.6 percent in their past four games. But as it often does, Tech’s zone defense threw off Nebraska, which shot 6-for-26 (23.1 percent) from beyond the arc.
Tech was 12th last season nationally in defensive 3-point field-goal percentage at 29.7 percent.
“That was our objective, to stop them from shooting that many 3’s and containing them,” guard Michael Devoe said. “We did a really good job tonight.”
Tech was also largely effective in its transition defense, a top priority for Pastner against the up-tempo Cornhuskers, limiting them to 15 fast-break points, one fewer than the Jackets. Out of its 77 possessions, Nebraska occasionally was able to jet down the floor after misses or live-ball turnovers to create fast-break layups, but they were relatively few, particularly considering that Tech continued to binge on turnovers (16, nearly matching its ACC-worst average of 17.2 per game) without Alvarado at the point.
“I thought for the most part we were good (in transition defense), but there were a couple times we weren’t as effective as we needed to be in transition,” Pastner said.
One such sequence unfolded with about 14:15 to play. Forward Khalid Moore made an unwise post-entry pass that was stolen, and then fouled Jervay Green in transition. Thankfully for Tech, Green missed both free throws, part of the Cornhuskers’ horrendous 8-for-18 night from the line.
On Tech’s next possession, Devoe threw an alley-oop pass that did not find its target, a second consecutive turnover that this time turned into a transition score by Green to cut Tech’s lead to 43-37 with 14 minutes left. The Jackets had led by 11 at the 15-minute mark.
“The biggest thing is we had 16 turnovers,” Pastner said. “Now, Khalid and Michael Devoe combined with 10, so we’ve just got to be better in that area.”
Devoe steered the Jackets out of danger. After Green’s basket, Devoe answered with a 3-pointer off a screen set by forward Moses Wright and then on the next possession won an offensive rebound and scored on a putback for a personal 5-0 run to restore the 11-point margin.
With Tech’s defensive motor running, that was Nebraska’s final threat of the evening.
“Just playing my role, just doing the little stuff and just trying to help my team win,” Devoe said. “So any way possible.”
The ACC’s leading scorer filled it up with a game-high 26 points on 10-for-16 shooting, including 4-for-8 from 3-point range. He added eight rebounds and seven assists. He tied his career high for assists and was one shy of his career high for rebounds.
“He plays with a great pace,” Hoiberg said. “He’s got a great hesitation move and obviously shoots the heck out of it.”
Devoe’s scoring average inched up to 23.8 points per game, well ahead of his 9.7 points-per-game average from his freshman season. Devoe has scored 20-plus points in five of Tech’s six games and has shot 55.4 percent thus far.
“He’s a heck of a player,” Hoiberg said.
Wright added 18 points on 8-for-14 shooting to go with nine rebounds and three blocks in 33 minutes. He was one rebound shy of back-to-back double-doubles. He’s getting close to the form he showed at the end of last season, when he averaged 15.6 points and 6.2 rebounds in the final five games of the season.
“He’s gotten a lot better, and it’s a continuation of just staying engaged for 40 minutes,” Pastner said. “When he’s blocking shots, he’s engaged. That’s a big thing for him.”
Forward Evan Cole started for the second game in a row in place of center James Banks, who had four points, eight rebounds and two blocks in 24 minutes. Banks did not start due to what Pastner termed an “internal matter,” one that was separate from the other internal matter that was the reason for his not starting on Sunday against Bethune-Cookman.
In the game’s first half, Tech fell behind 26-22 at the 4:23 mark but took control of the game with a 10-0 run that included some of the Jackets’ best offensive play of the game.
Guard Bubba Parham hit a pull-up jumper after faking a 3-pointer, part of a game in which he did a little bit of everything (six points, four rebounds, four assists, two steals, two charges taken and no turnovers) but find the range on his 3-point shot (0-for-5).
Devoe threw an alley-oop to Cole. Wright scored off an inbounds play.
Devoe drove the lane, faked a pass to the corner to draw guard Dachon Burke away from the basket and then wrapped a pass around center Yvan Ouedraogo to Moore for a layup.
The run was capped when Wright pinned a layup against the glass, then took off down the floor. Devoe found him with a throw-ahead pass that led him too far down the floor. Going out of bounds, he flipped a pass to Moore, who was cutting to basket, for a layup and a 32-26 lead at the 1:15 mark of the first half.
For the game, Tech shot 43.8 percent from the field, but 5-for-23 (21.7 percent) from 3-point range.
Tech moves on to its Saturday home matchup with Syracuse, its second ACC game of the season.
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