Two days after losing to Georgia, Georgia Tech went into the final minute with Wofford before finally securing a 76-72 win at McCamish Pavilion Thursday evening.
There were holes in the Yellow Jackets’ performance – they were vastly outscored in second-chance points for the second game in a row, this time 15-6. Tech allowed Wofford to operate effectively on the offensive end in the second half, which prolonged the Terriers’ opportunity for a road upset.
However, it was a vastly better performance than Tech gave against the Bulldogs. Tech shot 51.9 percent from the field and turned the ball over a season-low 10 times. Point guards Josh Heath (12 points, three assists) and Justin Moore (12 points, one turnover in 23 minutes) were in solid form and guard Tadric Jackson made use of his first start of the season. Needing each point, the Jackets shot 17-for-22 from the free-throw line. Tech was better at one of its weak points, making layups in traffic. The Jackets held Wofford to 39.7 percent shooting, 8.5 points below its average.
“I thought Georgia Tech guarded their face off,” Wofford coach Mike Young said. “I though they did a pretty good job.”
Five things to know about the game:
Starting debut
Jackson made his first start of the season despite coming into the game with the highest point-per-minute ratio on the team. Pastner had said last week that Jackson would have to earn his spot in the starting lineup. Pastner said after the game that Jackson has been practicing better, particularly giving more effort, and that he wanted to get him going as the start of the ACC schedule nears.
“I wanted to give him a shot in the starting lineup, and he produced (Thursday),” Pastner said.
He was particularly forceful in the first half, when he scored 14 points on six shots, including 4-for-4 from 3-point range. He added three assists with no turnovers. His four 3-pointers were a career high. He did not score in the second half, though.
“He was excellent,” Pastner said of Jackson in the first half. “He was an elite-level player. The issue is the consistency of it. We need it both halves.”
Terriers fire away
Tech had difficulty stopping Wofford’s perimeter game in the second half. The Terriers made seven of their first 14 3-point tries after halftime, which helped prevent the Jackets from gaining some distance. Wofford guard Eric Garcia was 5-for-6 from 3-point range in the second half and finished with 23 points. The Terriers came into the game ranked third nationally in 3-point field-goal percentage at 43.2 percent.
Pastner was not critical of his team’s defensive play against the 3-pointer.
“They hit pretty good shots,” he said. “That’s going to happen. And we defended really well against them in that first half.”
Carrying the load
Center Ben Lammers played another solid game, this time showcasing his ability to see the floor with six assists, his career best by four. Lammers has become particularly adept at squeezing passes into tight spaces to teammates cutting down the lane to the basket.
“I think it was just that they definitely tried to double team a lot more when I was down low post, so I tried to do more things from the high post,” he said.
Two nights after playing 36 minutes against Georgia, he scored 19 points on 9-for-12 shooting and had seven rebounds in a game-high 37 minutes.
“I was pretty tired towards the end,” he said, “but the two-day break (following the Wofford game) was motivation enough for me to keep going.”
Where the game was won
The Jackets did not lead by more than seven points for the final 18:18 of the game. In the final five minutes, Wofford had four possessions in which it had a chance to tie or take the lead but came up empty on each.
“We couldn’t (make the big shot),” Wofford coach Mike Young said. “And we do that pretty well. Georgia Tech had something to do with that.”
In the final 30 seconds, after Garcia missed a contested 3-pointer that would have tied the game at 70, forward Quinton Stephens and guard Josh Heath combined to go 6-for-6 from the free-throw line to put the game out of reach.
What’s next
Players were released after the game until they will reconvene late Sunday night. The team will practice twice before playing North Carolina A&T at home on Dec. 28 and then begin ACC play at home against No. 8 North Carolina on New Year’s Eve.
Tech will play at Wofford next year. It will be the last segment of a 2-for-1 agreement the schools made in 2015.
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