Georgia Tech returned to the win column Tuesday with an easy victory over visiting Texas Southern, a boost of confidence for the Yellow Jackets ahead of Friday’s annual rivalry game with Georgia.
Tech (2-1) got a double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds from Baye Ndongo and 16 points and six assists from Nait George in an 81-62 win over TSU at McCamish Pavilion. Kowacie Reeves added 15 points, Javian McCollum scored 14 and Lance Terry pumped in 13 off the bench. Freshman Doryan Onwuchekwa grabbed nine boards.
The Jackets will next face a Georgia (3-0) team that comes to McCamish at 8 p.m. Friday fresh off a 90-77 victory over North Florida in Athens on Tuesday. North Florida beat Tech 105-93 on Sunday at McCamish in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score would indicate.
The Bulldogs won last year’s matchup 76-62 in Athens and have won six of the past eight meetings. Tech will officially retire the No. 4 jersey of Dennis Scott at Friday’s affair.
“Shoot, well, UGA? That’s personal for all of us,” George said of the matchup. “We went into their place last year and kind of got whupped. When they come over here it’s up.”
Said Tech coach Damon Stoudamire: “Georgia is, I haven’t watched ‘em, but they’re a physical-type team. I look for them to be no different his year.
“I’m excited about Friday. It’ll be a great day, great evening, it’ll be a packed gym. We’ll have (Scott’s) ceremony so I’m looking forward to it. And we lose to North Florida, won tonight, can we respond on Friday? It’s an SEC team, it is a rivalry game and I’m interested to see how we respond to that.”
Tech was a tad sluggish at the outset Tuesday and didn’t really find separation until McCollum sank a step-back jumper from the left corner that turned into a three-point play making it 30-17 at the 8:02 mark. Terry’s 3-ball from the right corner put the Jackets up 35-21.
McCollum’s 3 from the left corner put Tech ahead 42-21 and forced a TSU timeout with 3:40 to go in the first half. George put an exclamation on the first 20 minutes with a step-back 3 at the buzzer that made it 49-25 at the break.
The Jackets shot 41.2% in the first half, made seven 3s and 14 free throws.
Credit: Danny Karnik/Georgia Tech Athletics
Credit: Danny Karnik/Georgia Tech Athletics
Reeves sank a 3 from the right corner eight minutes into the second half making it 64-34, a lead that proved insurmountable for the visiting Tigers.
“The only thing, for me, that was disappointing was our turnovers (14) and then I just felt like, it’s human nature, a lot of teams that try to win are teams that aren’t used to winning and when you’re trying to establish something they don’t really honor the game and so second half to me was just really sloppy, just in general,” Stoudamire said. “I feel like we gotta work on us, we gotta work on getting better, we gotta work on playing the right way, doing the right things, taking the right shots, not playing the score.”
Duane Posey scored 13 points to lead Texas Southern (1-3) which received $90,000 from Tech to play Tuesday’s game.
Tech’s Luke O’Brien out
Already without freshmen Jaeden Mustaf (thumb) and Darrion Sutton (hamstring) on Tuesday, Tech forward Luke O’Brien missed the game against Texas Southern with an unspecified injury. Stoudamire said O’Brien will try to return to the court for Friday’s game against Georgia.
A transfer from Colorado, O’Brien had averaged 11.5 points and nine rebounds through the first two games, shooting 52.6% from the field.
