This is why Georgia Tech needs Glen Rice Jr. to stay out of coach Brian Gregory's doghouse and on the court.
Rice, Tech's mercurial junior guard, did it all in a 72-44 victory against Siena Wednesday night at Gwinnett Arena. Rice made baskets of every type, helped shut down Siena with aggressive defense and generally showed why he's Tech's best player since Iman Shumpert left for the NBA draft last spring.
Rice had his best performance since returning from a three-game suspension for a violation of team rules. He scored 17 of his game-high 23 points in the first half to put the Jackets (4-2) in control and also finished with six rebounds and three steals.
After losing two of three games at the Charleston Classic, Tech improved to 3-0 in its temporary home at Gwinnett Arena. The Saints (2-2) beat Tech at Albany, N.Y., last December but this time fell behind big early, in large part because they couldn't stop Rice.
Rice, the former Walton High standout, is Tech's returning leader in scoring, rebounds and assists. But he got off to a bad start with new head coach Gregory after having run-ins last season with former Tech coach Paul Hewitt.
"[Gregory] always tells us to ask ourselves what's best for the team," Rice said. "You can't complain about anything. I made a mistake, I came back and now I'm going out there and trying to play hard and give my team a spark."
So far Rice has played as a reserve for Gregory, who said that's not related to any discipline measures. The coach said he's pleased with the way Rice has responded since the suspension.
"He's been great," Gregory said. "He's been good. But just like with every kid, it's every day. One of the things that is important in all great programs is that guys are consistent. We need guys that are consistent and understand what they are accountable for and what they are responsible for."
Rice was efficient while scoring a game-high 19 points in a victory against VCU and 11 in a loss to LSU, and then was dominant against Siena.
It became clear early that the Saints didn't have anyone to deal with Rice's size, skill and athleticism on the wing. Rice made his first seven field-goal attempts, including scoring 14 of Tech's 16 points as the Jackets' lead grew from 12-7 to 28-13
Rice, who made 10 of 12 field-goal attempts for the game, had one sequence in particular that highlighted his dominance.
After Rice made a 3-pointer and Siena scored, Rice simply ran past the Saints' defense in the open court and finished with a dunk. Siena answered with a score, only to see Rice come back and sink a 3-pointer.
Rice then swiped the ball from Kyle Downey and raced ahead for another dunk for the 28-13 lead. The Jackets led 37-18 at halftime and thereafter ended any thoughts of a Siena rally with a 10-0 run for a 58-31 lead.
The Saints were the latest opponent to be stifled by Tech, which has held all seven opponents to less than 60 points and 42-percent shooting. Siena shot 34.5 percent from the field, had a 45-30 deficit in rebounds and had 11 shots blocked.
Gregory said the Jackets have earned their strong defensive numbers.
"I'm hard to please when it comes to defense, too," he said. "We are getting better. There were some lapses even in this second half. The one thing we have to understand about our defense is we have to get better offensively because we can't keep putting it on our defense."
Tech's communication and quickness on the perimeter left Siena's guards with little room to operate. The Saints eventually went to forwards OD Anosike and Brandon Walters in the post but Tech's Daniel Miller and Kammeon Holsey consistently denied them.
Holsey scored 10 points after halftime to finish with 14. Miller had six points, five rebounds and four blocked shots.
The Jackets next face Northwestern on Tuesday at Philips Arena. The game is part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
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