Georgia Tech lost Saturday on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. There was no such drama Tuesday night.
The Yellow Jackets’ offensive limitations denied them any hope of challenging Clemson in a 56-37 loss.
The Jackets (9-18 overall, 2-11 ACC) lost their fourth game in a row and 14th of their past 16. After going 5-11 in the ACC last season, the Jackets are enduring double-digit losses in league play in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the Bobby Cremins era ended with four such seasons.
On Tuesday at Philips Arena, coach Brian Gregory’s team was swamped by Clemson’s defensive pressure and their inability to handle it, a recurring theme this season.
Given Tech’s shortage of ballhandlers and scorers, “you knew there was going to be some offensive games, where no matter what,” Tech would struggle to compete, Gregory said. “What we’ve done is used our defense and our rebounding at times to be able to hang in there. Sometimes, you can’t.”
It was Tech’s lowest point total in a game since a 40-37 loss to Boston College in the 1979-80 season and its second game this season when it failed to reach 40 points. Tech’s 37 points were the fewest in a game against Clemson since 1936 and the fewest Clemson has allowed in an ACC game.
Tech’s offense functioned poorly much of the game, failing to produce open shots some of the time and suffering from poor outside shooting nearly all of the time. After one of their best performances of the season Saturday — an overtime loss to Virginia Tech in which the Jackets shot a season-high 58.3 percent from the field — the Jackets followed it up with one of their poorest.
The Jackets shot 31.3 percent from the field, 17.6 percent from 3-point range and compounded their problems by making four of 11 free-throw attempts. Clemson (14-13, 6-7) gave up few easy baskets against a team desperate for them. Perhaps the most telling statistic for Tech’s offense was its 5/18 assist-turnover ratio.
“They trapped us or they put pressure on us, and we weren’t able to get the ball reversed or move the ball,” Gregory said. “We held on to the ball a little too long sometimes and were not able to get them stretched and then attack inside.”
Playing without guard Glen Rice Jr. (suspension) and backup center Nate Hicks (mononucleosis) and with guard Jason Morris hobbling on a mid-foot strain, the available Jackets were not positioned to handle the playing load. Against Virginia Tech on Saturday, all five starters played 33 minutes or more in the overtime game.
“I think we were a little sapped in the juice department, there’s no doubt about it,” Gregory said.
Tech sealed its fate in the first half. After scoring on three possessions to close to 16-13, the Jackets failed to score on their next eight possessions, by which point they had fallen behind 24-13. It proved to be too deep a deficit to overcome.
“We’ve gone on some of those spells [before], but I think it was their pressure that really got to us at that particular time,” Gregory said.
In 28 first-half possessions, Tech turned the ball over 12 times, which gave Clemson room to open a 27-18 halftime lead.
Clemson has won five in a row against Tech, its longest winning streak against the Jackets since taking 14 in a row 1972-82.
The Jackets were buoyed by forward Kammeon Holsey, who played with undeniable effort and led the Jackets with 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting and eight rebounds. Holsey has scored in double figures in four of the past five games.
