With just seven scholarship players available Wednesday, Georgia Tech led for all but 6:56 of the game and held off Virginia Tech in a 71-64 victory at McCamish Pavilion to break a four-game losing streak.
Guards Jaeden Mustaf and Kowacie Reeves and forward Luke O’Brien were all sidelined with injuries. Guard Lance Terry missed the game due to illness and center Doryan Onwuchekwa has not been with the team due to personal reasons since December. But the Yellow Jackets who did take the floor against the Hokies played one of the better games of the month for a team desperately needing a win.
“We see all the (negative) things online and what not,” Georgia Tech forward Duncan Powell said. “We’re family, we’re all we have at the end of the day, so every time people doubt us, talk bad about us or anything, at the end of the day it’s just us in the locker room. We’re a real family. That’s the best way to put that.”
Powell scored 23 points, a career high for the junior who has previously played at North Carolina A&T and Sacramento State. He was one of four Jackets in double figures joined by Javian McCollum (16), Baye Ndongo (14) and Nait George (11).
Ndongo also had nine rebounds, five steals and four assists in one of the better all-around games of his young career.
“Maybe I’m just the naive coach. I just personally believe, like, if we don’t become prisoners of other people’s expectation of where we’re at right now, I think we capable of running off games,” Georgia Tech coach Damon Stoudamire said.
Georgia Tech (9-11, 3-6 ACC) finished with 18 assists and registered 11 steals. It also held Virginia Tech to 37.3% shooting, and even though the Hokies made 11 3-pointers, they missed 15 long-distance shots and turned the ball over 17 times.
Before Wednesday, the Jackets had not won since Jan. 4. They next head to Notre Dame (8-10, 2-5 ACC) now looking to end the month of a winning streak.
“I was looking at the standings and we’ve played, like, two more (conference) games then everybody else in the conference. That was crazy,” Powell said. “As shorthanded as we are, we get more time to rest (this weekend), people to come back, get over sickness. It’s a big thing, recover, get back to work on Friday and prepare for our game on Tuesday.”
Georgia Tech got off to a high-flying start Wednesday, something it had been struggling to do during its four-game losing streak. But on this night, the Jackets made their first three 3s en route to a 9-2 start. Ibrahim Souare finished a smooth dunk from the left baseline making it 11-4 and then a Ndongo layup after a slick pass from McCollum gave Tech a 22-14 lead.
The Jackets had nine assists on their first nine baskets and found themselves up 24-15 at the 11:30 mark of the opening period.
But the Hokies (8-11, 3-5), as they are prone to do given their propensity for shooting the long ball, kept coming and eight straight points from Rodney Brown Jr. tied the game at 26-all with a shade under eight minutes left in the half. Tyler Johnson’s triple from the left corner finally gave VT its first lead at 29-28.
Georgia Tech responded with an 8-2 run, getting a 3 and a layup from Powell sandwiched around a Ndongo layup, to spurt back ahead 36-31. The Jackets would settle for a 39-35 lead after the first 20 minutes, a half in which they finished with 14 assists on 15 field goals and just three turnovers.
“First half we played excellent basketball on both sides of the ball,” Stoudamire said. “Second half, I didn’t think we played as well offensively, but I still think our defense has been good enough to win games and we did a really good job. They were locked-in to the scouting report and doing the things that we talked about.”
The start of the second half was in stark contrast to the first as the action was bogged down with fouls and missed shots. Georgia Tech, after briefly falling behind 44-43, edged ahead 53-47 on a McCollum layup with 11:40 to play and then had an eight-point lead at 59-51 after another McCollum layup with 8:02 remaining.
Virginia Tech rallied to get within 61-60 after three straight 3s, the last coming at the 4:38 mark. But that would be as close as the visitors would get as Georgia Tech held on down the stretch and improved to 20-0 (and 9-0 this season) under Stoudamire when leading at the 5-minute mark of the second half.
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