Coming off back-to-back losses to Mercer and Fordham, let’s face it, Georgia Tech wasn’t much of a match for Alabama. The Crimson Tide’s defense was unrelenting and Tech had no real answer in a 73-48 loss.
It gets no easier from here. No. 5 Duke comes to Philips Arena on Saturday, and the Yellow Jackets (7-7) are facing nothing but ACC play from here on out.
“We’re trying to instill a much more committed basketball team and doing things the right way, and that’s going to take some time,” first-year coach Brian Gregory said. “As the process occurs there’s going to be some slippage, and you have to use those times to teach and learn.”
This, and the better part of the month, which also features games at N.C. State, Maryland, Clemson and North Carolina, would seem one of those times.
“The month of January, you look at the schedule, that thing is a monster,” Gregory said. “So we have to use every day. We can’t just do it on the eight games that we play.”
After winning three in a row starting with the Georgia game, the Yellow Jackets have now lost three in a row. They scored a season-low 48 points against a swarming Alabama defense.
Alabama (11-3) forced Tech into 15 turnovers in the first half and scored 17 points off turnovers to Tech’s five, while opening up a 40-22 lead at halftime. Not that the Yellow Jackets could hear it, but one frustrated Tech fan yelled “value your possessions” from the upper deck, to little avail. The Yellow Jackets committed 22 turnovers in the game, one off their season-high.
“Fifteen first-half turnovers really puts you in tough position no matter how well you’re doing anything else,” Gregory said.
Kammeon Holsey led the Yellow Jackets with 14 points on 7-for-9 shooting from the floor. He was there to convert the rare occasion the Yellow Jackets found easy baskets, most of which came when they beat Alabama’s press.
“We didn’t stay poised,” Holsey said. “We didn’t take our time moving the ball around.”
Tech’s best offensive player, Glen Rice Jr., is off his game. After being shutout in 19 minutes in the loss to Fordham, Rice scored five points on 2-for-7 shooting in 22 minutes Tuesday night.
Rice, who was averaging 13.2 points, drew plenty of attention from Alabama’s defense which seemed to beat Tech to the punch at every turn.
The Crimson Tide was fifth in the nation, holding opponents to a 36.1 percent field goal percentage, and it showed. Tech shot only 40.8 percent. Tech used a 9-1 run to pull within 10 points of Alabama to open the second half, only to give up 10 unanswered points from there as Alabama re-claimed a 20-point lead.
Alabama’s leading scorer JaMychal Green, who had missed the previous two games with a shoulder injury, returned for the Crimson Tide 5 ½ minutes into the first half Tuesday night and scored back-to-back baskets including the second of three Alabama dunks in the first half. He finished with nine points and five rebounds.
The Crimson Tide, led by Trevor Releford with 17 points, looked primed and ready for SEC play which it begins Saturday in Athens.
The Yellow Jackets fell to 0-2 at Philips Arena, playing Tuesday night in front of a crowd of 5,738. The rest of their home games will be at Philips as they await the renovation of Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
“When we hop on the bus to go home, it’ll be the sixth time we’ve gotten on the bus today, for a home game,” said Gregory, referring to trips for the morning shoot-around, their pre-game session and the game. “It’s hard. But we understand what we’re in this to do.”
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