It wasn’t an upset of North Carolina, and it wasn’t a 53-point loss at Duke. Georgia Tech’s 65-50 loss to No. 9 Louisville on Saturday afternoon at McCamish Pavilion was somewhere in between.
The Yellow Jackets gave good effort, defended fairly well (inside the 3-point arc, at least) and made enough of a run at the Cardinals that coach Rick Pitino was compelled to call a timeout midway through the second half. But Tech didn’t have quite enough on offense to pull off a second major upset in its first three games of the ACC schedule.
“We gave every ounce of effort and energy,” coach Josh Pastner said. “We tried the best we could. We’re fighting like crazy. We’re limited offensively. We’re very, very limited offensively.”
Tech (9-6, 1-2 ACC) got 39 points on a combined 14-for-26 shooting from center Ben Lammers and guard Josh Okogie. The rest of the team was 3-for-24 for 11 points. Louisville (13-3, 1-2) shot 9-for-16 from 3-point range, a contrast from Tech’s 1-for-8 from beyond the arc.
Five observations from the defeat:
When the game was lost
Perhaps after observing Duke rifle through Tech’s zone defense with 16-for-31 shooting from 3-point range, Louisville made a concerted effort to free up shooters by driving into the lane and kicking out to the weak side. In their first seven possessions, the Cardinals made four 3-pointers on five attempts to open a 16-3 lead, often benefiting from wide-open looks at the basket. Louisville was 9-for-41 from 3-point range in its first two ACC games, and Pastner said he was playing the percentages in focusing on defending the interior.
Over the final 35 minutes, Louisville and Tech played virtually even, 49-47 in the Cardinals’ favor.
“It was like the movie ‘Jaws’ or something where, you’re just on the ocean and all of the sudden, Jaws comes up and just comes and eats you,” Pastner said.
Lammers impressive again
Lammers scored a career-high 24 points on 9-for-14 shooting from the field and 6-for-6 from the line. With nine rebounds, he was one shy of his eighth double-double. Lammers scored 18 of his points after halftime, including 10 during a 12-0 second-half run that slashed Louisville’s lead to 41-38.
Lammers scored on dunks off feeds, showed shooting range and blocked three shots. He entered the game leading the ACC in blocks at 3.4 per game.
“We knew coming in he’s the most improved player, probably, in the league right now and definitely one of the most in the country,” said Louisville assistant coach David Padgett, sent to the postgame news conference in place of coach Rick Pitino.
Like a neutral court
As has become custom since its entry into the ACC in 2014, Louisville brought out hundreds of fans to McCamish. There were no fewer than 14 busloads of fans that made the trip from Louisville. With Tech’s support limited because of the travel warnings issued by local authorities, Cardinals red made up a significant portion of the McCamish crowd, announced at 6,160. Tech had a similar experience for its ACC opener against North Carolina on New Year’s Eve, when support for the Jackets was limited because the football team was playing its bowl game at the same time.
Losing on loose balls
After Tech closed to 43-40 with 8:40 to go, Louisville made two 3-pointers in a span of three possessions to ward off the Jackets. Both were on second-chance points after Louisville guards scrambled for offensive rebounds. For the game, Louisville had 16 offensive rebounds and converted them into 18 points. Tech had 10 offensive boards and cashed them in for 12 points.
“It’s a 50-50 ball,” said Pastner, who has made winning loose balls a top priority. “It’s between you and the opponent, and you’ve got to get it. Got to get it.”
Through the storm
Tech finished its three-game run against top-10 opponents, its first such streak in school history. The Jackets scored a huge upset over then-No. 9 North Carolina, were bludgeoned by No. 8 Duke and then hung in against the Cardinals.
“Obviously, we had two rough losses the past two, but we saw that we could play with Louisville, and Duke was just kind of going insane, but it shows that the ranking doesn’t really matter,” Lammers said. “We can hang with anyone. We can beat any team. We just need to go in with no fear and just play with high energy and go at it.”
Tech’s next game is at home Thursday against Clemson, which lost to No. 23 Notre Dame on Saturday and is now 11-4.
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