Lance Terry heated up quickly during one stretch Monday night and helped propel Georgia Tech to a 93-63 season-opening victory over Clayton State at McCamish Pavilion.
Terry, who finished with a team-high 16 points, connected on 3-of-4 3-pointers in a minute. His hot stretch put the Yellow Jackets up 61-47.
“Lance is a good player. He’s been really good for us,” Tech coach Josh Pastner said. “I call him Mr. Dependable. It was one of those things where he had to get his feet under him, playing for the first time under the lights of McCamish at home.”
Terry, a senior transfer who played his first three seasons at Gardner-Webb, scored 14 of his points in the second half. What made his performance even more crucial was that he provided the Yellow Jackets with an outside scoring option that was missing in the first half.
“I felt like our defense created those shots for me,” Terry said about his hot stretch. “All of us on the team playing unselfish, they were finding me with the open shot.”
Clayton State and Georgia Tech were tied at 34 at halftime, but Georgia Tech responded in the second half.
Terry was 1-of-4 shooting from the field in the first half, and he missed two 3-point attempts before finding his rhythm.
If Terry can provide outside shooting consistently, Tech’s up-tempo offense will benefit greatly.
“We had been really good in spring and summer ball, the preseason shooting the ball,” Pastner said. “We scored over 80 points versus Vanderbilt, over 80 points against Tulane and over 90 points tonight. We have been scoring the ball; we can shoot the ball well.”
