Georgia Tech showed off its depth and some of its new and shiny pieces in a 85-62 rout of visiting West Georgia on Wednesday at McCamish Pavilion in front of a crowd of 3,530.
Javian McCollum, a transfer from Oklahoma, had a game-high 18 points and Luke O’Brien, a transfer from Colorado, had eight points and 10 rebounds for the Jackets (1-0). Freshman Doryan Onwuchekwa finished with seven boards in a game where 11 of coach Damon Stoudamire’s players saw action.
Tech shot 48.5% from the floor and finished with 20 assists. It also had a rebounding advantage of 49-25. Kowacie Reeves added 15 in the victory and Baye Ndongo finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.
“From this morning, I woke up, I was just excited to get out here with this group of guys on the court,” said McCollum who also had five assists, four rebounds and four steals. “We got a great group of guys that care about each other and care for winning. It shows in practice that we compete and wanna be the best team possible. Just being out there with those guys and just getting the win and just being able to jell it’s the best feeling ever.”
The Jackets return to McCamish Pavilion at 1 p.m. Sunday to play North Florida (1-0).
“I think what I’m trying to find out, see guys get better, see the group get better as a unit, but then just keep finding guys that I can trust,” said Stoudamire about moving forward after Wednesday’s win. “We just gotta keep building brick by brick. And our trajectory just gotta keep going in the right direction.
“It’s not about the opponent, we gotta play the right way, we gotta finish games for ourselves because the road gets tougher.”
Tech started crisp and never looked back Wednesday, building an 11-2 lead over the first four minutes highlighted by a McCollum 3 and a reverse jam by Reeves. Lance Terry’s finish on an alley-up at the 10:21 mark put the Jackets ahead 22-9 — Terry returned to action after missing the 2023-24 season with a calf injury.
Nait George, who had seven assists, put Tech up an even 20 with a three-point play that made it 42-22 toward the end of the half.
That lead ticked up to 50-29 going into the halftime break. Tech shot 56.8% in the first half, had 15 assists on 21 made baskets and scored 30 points in the paint. O’Brien and Onwuchekwa combined for 14 rebounds.
McCollum made it 60-35 with a layup 3 1/2 minutes into the second half. Duncan Powell, a transfer from Sacramento State, followed an offensive rebound with a two-handed slam making it 69-39 with 12:23 to go — and there was no coming back from that for the Wolves.
“Especially in the first half I thought we played well. I thought we moved the ball well. Had a lot of great defensive possessions,” Stoudamire said. “The second half I thought we kind of played the clock a little bit, but overall, I was really happy with the things that we did. We did some really good things defensively and I think that was the emphasis for us this summer and the early part of fall.”
West Georgia (0-2), which received $90,000 to play Wednesday’s game, was led by Shelton Williams-Dryden’s 13 points.
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