Georgia Tech was unable to record the first 4-0 start in coach Brian Gregory’s tenure, falling 69-68 to East Tennessee State Sunday at McCamish Pavilion in an NIT Season Tipoff game.
ETSU guard Ge’Lawn Guyn hit a 3-pointer with .9 seconds remaining for the winning points, and the Yellow Jackets’ ensuing inbounds pass was deflecting, ending the game. It was the Buccaneers’ first win over an ACC team since 1991.
Here are five observations from Sunday’s game:
Tech’s offense struggled.
The Jackets had cleared 100 points in two of their first three games, but were taken out of their game by ETSU. The pace slowed considerably – Tech had 64 possessions compared to 76 in the season-opening rout of Cornell – and the Jackets didn’t respond with patience and wise shot selection, rather rushing shots when touches availed themselves. They had 12 offensive rebounds but just six second-chance points. “When you get an offensive rebound, you’ve got to sometimes kick it out and we took some bad second and third shots trying to force some action in there,” coach Brian Gregory said.
The Jackets were off.
Whether it was a 2 p.m. start in front of a sparse crowd, a directional-school opponent or something else, Tech didn’t seem to have it. The Jackets couldn’t put ETSU away after going up nine late in the first half and then were outplayed and outhustled in the second half, as the Buccaneers made 15 of 26 field-goal attempts. “It seemed like we were a step slow, it looks like,” Tech forward Marcus Georges-Hunt said. Notably, the Buccaneers woke up at 3:30 a.m. Tuesday morning to play a 6 a.m. home game (for the chance to play on ESPN2), left campus at 4:15 a.m. Thursday to play Villanova on Friday and then rose at 6 a.m. Saturday to fly to Atlanta.
Gregory wants more from Georges-Hunt.
Georges-Hunt scored a season-high 20 points and was 9-for-10 from the free-throw line, but the Jackets may still need more from their leader. “We need him to be really aggressive when he gets the ball,” Gregory said, noting rule changes limiting defensive contact. “If there’s a sliver of daylight, we need a drive. The way that the game is going to be played now, you have to attack the basket off the dribble.”
The Jackets couldn’t close it down.
Ahead 63-59 after guard Adam Smith’s jump shot with 2:41 left, the Jackets permitted the Buccaneers to finish the game on a 10-5 run. Tech made winning plays, namely a help-defense block by forward James White with 43 seconds left that was followed by a dunk by Georges-Hunt with 24 seconds left to put the Jackets up 67-64. However, the Jackets didn’t have answers for Guyn, a Cincinnati transfer who had eight points, a block and assist in the final 2:20, including the game-winning 3-pointer over two Tech defenders. “The kid hit a tough shot, but you have to do a better job prior to that,” Gregory said.
It was a bad home loss for the Jackets.
Results like this are increasingly the way of college basketball. Already this season, N.C. State has lost to William and Mary, Florida State to Hofstra and Georgia to Chattanooga, among others. “People call it mid-major, but I feel like there’s no such thing as a mid-major school,” Georges-Hunt said. ETSU has three contributors who transferred from power-conference teams. Regardless, a home loss to a Southern Conference team doesn’t reflect well. The Buccaneers had an RPI of 192 last year – Tech was No. 147 – and they were the third-highest ranked team in their conference. With power-conference matchups coming up during Thanksgiving week at the NIT Season Tipoff in Brooklyn and the 18-game ACC march starting in January, the Jackets need every win they can scavenge. Sunday was a lost opportunity.
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