Georgia Tech was outplayed in every manner Tuesday and, thus, lost handily to visiting Jacksonville State 81-64 on Tuesday in the first round of the NIT at McCamish Pavilion. A reported crowd of 1,623 was there to witness it.
The Gamecocks, out of Conference USA, shot 51.7% for the game and drained 15 out of 30 3-pointers. They led by as many as 24 in the second half and dictated the pace of play from jump.
Tech bowed out of the postseason without much of a fight, ending the season with a record of 17-17.
“Whenever a team goes 15-for-30 (from 3) it’s hard to win,” Tech junior Duncan Powell said. “We had to do a better job running them off the line, stopping their main guy who made 5-for-10 (from 3). It’s hard to win when they shoot 50% and that’s on us not doing what we supposed to do.”
Powell and Lance Terry each scored 15 to lead Tech. Sophomores Nait George (14 points, five assists) and Baye Ndongo (five rebounds, four points) were mostly held at bay. Tech was also outrebounded 41-30 and turned the ball over 11 times in what was not much of an inspired McCamish Pavilion finale.
Jacksonville State (23-12) held the lead for all but 88 seconds and advanced to face the Northern Colorado-California Irvine winner on either Saturday or Sunday.
“Just felt like, for the most part, I felt like we were in quicksand the whole night,” Tech coach Damon Stoudamire said. “It’s unfortunate that we played this way this evening, but I don’t wanna take away from what the guys have done to put themselves back in position and I’m happy and proud of ‘em for that. We didn’t end the year on a great note, but hopefully moving forward, as we move into the spring, summer, this will motivate guys.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Jacksonville State began the night on a 9-3 run thanks to five points from Marcellus Brigham, then had a 12-5 lead on Brigham’s second 3 of the early going. Terry was able to connect on back-to-backs 3s allowing Tech to crawl within 15-14, but JSU never flinched.
The Gamecocks stretched the margin out to 25-16 on a left-corner 3 from Quel’Ron House. Jaeden Mustaf came back with five in a row from Tech forcing a JSU timeout. The Gamecocks came out of that timeout and went on a 13-2 run, building a 32-23 lead on a Jaron Pierre dunk and a 38-25 margin on another Brigham 3 ball.
Jacksonville State would settle for a 45-33 lead at the break after shooting 53.1% and making nine 3-pointers. The Gamecocks totaled 12 assists on 17 made buckets and led for 18 1/2 of 20 first-half minutes.
“They came out with more energy than us, just played harder than us, honestly,” Powell said. “That was really the whole game.”
The Gamecocks opened up a 20-point lead less than four minutes into the second half. A 10-2 run was punctuated by Mason Nicholson’s layup making the score 55-35. Tech never showed much interest in making a comeback, getting within 14 with 10:58 left on the clock, but no closer.
Pierre scored 30 and had seven assists to lead JSU. Brigham scored 16 and Jao Ituka added 14. The victory was the 600th career win for Jacksonville State coach Ray Harper.
“Just really proud of these kids,” Harper said. “We just lost a tough game on Saturday. We’ve battled all year. I was asked by ESPN what they need to know about this team. I said you need to know that they’ll compete. I don’t know the outcome, but we will compete and I think they showed that tonight. They’ve shown it all year.”
Tech played Tuesday’s game without freshman center Ibrahim Souare who had his nose broken during the second half of Thursday’s loss to Duke in the ACC tournament. Senior point Javian McCollum, who hadn’t played since Feb. 4 at Clemson, finally returned to the court Tuesday and scored five points in 22 minutes.
The Jackets fell to 14-10 all-time in the NIT and 6-2 in NIT home games.
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