ATHENS -- Georgia Tech could’ve used some 3-point shooters Tuesday night. Fortunately for Georgia, a player expected to be one of the Jackets’ best ones was playing for the Bulldogs.
Blue Cain, a freshman who originally signed with Tech, was one of several Georgia players who finally found their mark from beyond the arc. The 6-foot-5 guard made two from 3-point range in the first half and four for the game, which helped put some distance between the Bulldogs and their visitors from Atlanta. Georgia led wire-to-wire on the way to a 76-62 victory.
It was the Bulldogs’ first win in the 199-game series since December of 2019. Georgia (6-3) improves to 3-1 against the ACC so far this season. The Bulldogs also beat Wake Forest at home and FSU on the road. They lost to Miami in the Bahamas Championship.
Tech, which had beaten No. 7 Duke and No. 21 Mississippi State in the last week, falls to 4-3.
As for Cain, the quiet freshman with the long blond locks was doing zero chest-pumping after the game. The Knoxville native signed with the Yellow Jackets out of IMG Academy but got waived out of his letter-of-intent after Tech parted ways with former coach Josh Pastner after last season.
“There’s no bad blood between us or anything like that,” said Cain, who finished with 12 points in 20 minutes of play. “They’re a great organization and coach (Damon) Stoudamire is a great coach. I just tried to treat it as a normal game.”
Georgia coach Mike White, who had recruited Cain while at Florida, went after him hard. That was due in part to his long-distance shooting acumen.
“Blue’s confident,” White said afterward. “He lets it come to him, sometimes to a fault. But he’s also got an ability to attack close-outs with a quick first step. He’s just out there reading the game and his confidence never waivers.”
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Georgia led by 16 at halftime and as many as 23 points in the second half, with much of that good work being owed to making wide-open shots on the perimeter. It took the Bulldogs a while to find their mark. They missed their first four 3s and 8-of-9 early before Cain made Georgia’s first triple of the game at the 12:28 mark.
That seemed to loosen up the rest of the squad and they’d made four by halftime on 17 attempts. But the biggest of all came off Cain’s hand with 6:59 to play.
The Bulldogs had led wire-to-wire and hadn’t been threatened in a while when Tech used a quick 9-0 run to get within 14 points to make the Stegeman Coliseum crowd antsy. Georgia, which had four consecutive scoreless possessions, almost had another when Noah Thomasson alertly jumped on a loose ball and called timeout at the 7:02 mark to save the possession.
Coming out of the timeout, the Bulldogs quickly worked the ball around court before finding Cain at the top of the key, where he hung out much of the night. Cain buried the triple while barely disturbing the net in the process. Now leading 62-45, that seemed to restore order.
Georgia went on another mini-run, scoring six unanswered points and getting up again by 20 before the final three minutes of meaningless exchanges.
Credit: Chip Towers
On the night, Cain made 4-of-7 threes. But he got plenty of help.
Thomasson led Georgia scorers with 16 points, making 2 of his 5 3-pointers, Jabri Abdur-Rahim scored 12 with one 3-pointer, and Justin Hill scored 14 despite missing his only two tries from outside the arc.
In all, the Bulldogs made 10 of 33 (30.3%). But they made good on the misses, too, out-rebounding the Jackets 50-43.
“Blue’s an elite shooter, one of the best I’ve ever played with,” said Thomasson, a graduate transfer from Niagara. “So, anytime he’s open, we want him to shoot as much as possible.
Georgia led 36-20 at halftime, and the real wonder was that the Bulldogs weren’t up more. The Bulldogs had lots of wide-open 3-point looks but didn’t make many. They were 4-for-17 at intermission with only Cain making more than one.
The same could be said of Tech, only the Jackets weren’t making shots inside the arc either. They were 9-for-34 from the field and 2-for-12 from 3-point range. Remarkably, they didn’t go to the foul line once in the opening 20.
Rebounding helped the Bulldogs as much as anything. They had 11 second-chance points and out-boarded the Jackets 27-19.
It was a tight contest for the first 10 minutes, then Georgia finally found its range outside. Cain made two 3s and Hill one during an eight-minute span that saw the Bulldogs increase their lead from 12-10 to 28-14.
The biggest lead of the half came on the Bulldogs’ last possession of the half. After RJ Melendez’s offensive rebound off a missed 3 by Abdur-Rahim, Georgia regathered itself and extended the clock. Thomasson nailed a 3-pointer at the end of the shot clock to make it 36-20 and leaving only enough time for Tech to get off a rushed 3-point try at the buzzer, which it missed.
