With a top-20 team on the ropes and its fans frenzied, Georgia Tech followed its agonizing script once again. The Yellow Jackets gave up a double-digit second-half lead to No. 17 Louisville, falling 52-51 to the Cardinals Monday night at McCamish Pavilion.
The Jackets led 41-28 with 9:40 to play, scraping out points with baskets in transition, effective ball movement and dogged play on the offensive glass. But, buckling against Louisville’s full-court pressure and perhaps nerves, Tech scored 10 points in its final 16 possessions. The Jackets had scored 41 points in their first 49 possessions.
In ACC play, Tech (12-16 overall, 3-13 ACC) is now 0-9 in games decided by five points or fewer or in overtime. Monday’s loss was the fifth by one or two points.
“Again, disappointed in the result,” coach Brian Gregory said. “That’s a tough one to swallow again.”
With the pressure of Tech’s defense, Louisville (22-6, 10-5) played most of the game with an offense that was imprecise and errant. The Cardinals turned the ball over 13 times, their second-highest total in ACC play. Many were unforced. Louisville also scored just 17 points in the first half on 7-for-28 shooting, remarkably the fourth time the Cardinals have scored in the teens in the first half in ACC play.
Tech pushed the pace whenever it had the opportunity, even after made baskets. With the score tied at 14 with 7:52 left in the first half, the Jackets took control of the game with a 6-0 run that began when guard Travis Jorgenson led a fast break after a Louisville basket, feeding forward Robert Sampson for a dunk and a 16-14 lead. Guard Tadric Jackson followed with a dunk in transition after a Cardinals miss and center Demarco Cox cleaned up forward Marcus Georges-Hunt’s missed layup in transition with a put-back dunk and a 20-14 lead with 6 1/2 minutes left in the half.
With a 24-17 lead at the intermission, half of the Jackets’ scoring was credited to fast-break points, including a vicious dunk by Jackson over 6-foot-10 forward Chinanu Onuaku to end the Jackets’ first-half scoring that brought McCamish to its feet.
“We played much more like we’re supposed to play, though, in terms of the defensive effort, the energy that we played with, sharing the ball, taking care of the ball, things like that,” Gregory said.
However, as has been the unswerving pattern, Tech wilted at the end. An 11-0 UL run begun with 8:46 to play drew Louisville back from 41-28 to 41-39. In the frenzied final 1:30, which began with the score tied at 46, the Jackets had six possessions. They went: turnover, missed 3-pointer, layup, turnover, blocked layup, successful desperation 3-pointer. The Cardinals took the lead — their first since midway through the first half — on a 3-pointer by guard Terry Rozier with 59 seconds remaining. He put the Cardinals ahead for good with 20 seconds left with a layup after Georges-Hunt had tied the game seconds earlier.
In his post-game remarks, Louisville coach Rick Pitino gave a gracious nod to his colleague, whose job security appears tenuous.
“I’ve always said it. Sometimes a lack of patience is the worst thing programs can do,” Pitino said. “You’ve just got to stay patient with young (players) because they’ll get it. Look, I’m not telling the athletic director that this guy is the next John Wooden, but I can tell you something right now: He’s a top-15 basketball coach in the nation.”
Gregory was appreciative to a point.
“That’s nice to hear,” he said. “I’m not going to lie to you. I’d rather have won the game and him think I stink.”
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