Georgia Tech had to make a series of winning plays in order to stave off Vanderbilt Saturday afternoon. The Yellow Jackets provided them, earning a well-deserved 65-60 win over the Commodores at McCamish Pavilion.
The Jackets never led by more than six but matched Vanderbilt shot for shot down the stretch, with point guard Travis Jorgenson and Robert Sampson providing key baskets in the final three minutes.
Tech improved to 8-2 and has three wins over power-conference teams – Georgia, Northwestern and now Vanderbilt (7-3). The Jackets outscored the Commodores 40-27 in the second half and outrebounded them 39-30 for the game, including 20 on the offensive end.
Jorgenson scored eight points, matching his career high, to go with a career-high six assists against no turnovers. Sampson scored six, none more critical than two he scored on a soaring dunk on a fast break off a feed from Jorgenson to put the Jackets up 57-53 with 2:19 to go.
Against Vanderbilt’s 2-3 zone, Tech often had trouble finding the gaps to attack, hoisting up threes and frequently missing. Tech trailed 33-25 at the half having made two of 12 3-point attempts. The Commodores led despite having taken 22 shots to Tech’s 36.
Given that Tech entered the game making 25.5 percent of its 3-pointers – 337th out of 345 Division I teams –this wasn’t an entirely surprising result.
Midway through the second half, Vanderbilt switched to its man-to-man defense, which appeared to free up the Jackets. The Jackets took the lead at 45-43 on a putback by Sampson with 10:16 remaining, their first lead since midway through the first half.
Tech continued to play hot on offense, at one point making baskets on five of six possessions, to take leads of 49-45 and 51-47 and force Vanderbilt back into a zone.
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