Damon Stoudamire laments lack of fight as Georgia Tech’s plunge continues

On Wednesday night at McCamish Pavilion, Georgia Tech emerged from halftime within striking distance of visiting Wake Forest. The opportunity for a much-needed win lay waiting to be seized.

“Well, I thought we were in a good position,” Tech coach Damon Stoudamire said. “I thought we were in a good spot. We played well in the first half.”

Unfortunately for the Yellow Jackets, overtaking Wake Forest required putting the ball in the basket. Tech failed to do so for the first 4½ minutes of the second half, and its chance to win its first game in nearly a month vanished with it.

Tech lost its sixth consecutive game, and ninth in its past 10, in an 83-67 loss to the Demon Deacons before a paltry late-night crowd. It was yet another in a string of defeats in which the Jackets competed in parts of the contest before giving way.

“To me, they jumped on us,” Stoudamire said. “I thought offensively, it compounds when you miss a couple at the bucket. Then I thought we took some questionable shots. Next thing you know, it’s an 11-0 run.”

The loss dropped Tech (11-14, 2-10 ACC) into a three-way tie for last place in the conference with Notre Dame and Pitt. Beyond the stigma of being at the bottom of the standings, it increases the Jackets’ probability of not qualifying for the ACC Tournament — the fate of the three lowest-finishing teams in the 18-team conference.

The Jackets have six remaining regular-season games to avoid that ignominy.

"Well, I thought we were in a good position," Tech coach Damon Stoudamire, shown here after their loss to Syracuse last month, said of Wednesday night's matchup against Wake Forest. "I thought we were in a good spot. We played well in the first half." (Jason Getz/AJC)

“Just responding to adversity,” said Tech forward Kowacie Reeves Jr., who led the Jackets with 18 points on 7-for-12 shooting from the field. “That’s the bulk of what we’ve got to do to get ourselves out of this.”

Wake Forest (12-12, 3-8), which itself had lost five games in a row before Wednesday, led 37-33 at the half.

At the start of the second half, the Jackets wove together their scoreless spell with a collection of ungainly attempts at offensive basketball — a turnover, two consecutive possessions ended with blocked shots, a missed 3-pointer, another blocked shot followed by a missed tip-in try, two missed free throws and a missed 3-pointer from the corner.

The Demon Deacons exploited the errancy to construct an 11-0 run that grew their lead to 48-33 with 16:42 to play in the half. Tech finally scored at the 15:22 mark on a Reeves tip-in, ending a streak of seven consecutive empty possessions to start the half.

Wake Forest’s lead never was less than 10 points the rest of the way.

“We weren’t the same team when we came out of the dressing room in the second half,” Stoudamire said. “We didn’t have the same collective energy, we didn’t have the same fight. At times, I just don’t like the looks on our faces, as well.”

Tech forward Baye Ndongo contributed 14 points and nine rebounds to complement Reeves, who made his return from missing the past two games with a high fever and appeared not to be at full health. Ndongo and Reeves’ teammates scored 35 points on 13-for-45 shooting from the field. Tech was 10-for-20 from 3-point range, but 16-for-46 (34.8%) inside the arc.

After this latest effort, the Jackets ranked 296th in Division I in 2-point field-goal percentage (48.2%), per KenPom. Only one high-major program (Rutgers) was ranked beneath the Jackets in that category.

Stoudamire lamented the team’s inability to fight through adversity, a trait on particular display in the decisive first few minutes of the second half.