Post-game comments from Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner and Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim following the Yellow Jackets’ 90-61 loss to the Orange Saturday at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.
Josh Pastner
“They were dialed in. I thought the biggest change of the game was two things. One was Tyus Battle, who’s become a really good player, obviously, but his start – hit those 3’s – really gave them momentum and kind of got them going and that set the tone. Whereas at our place, we won the tip – Quinton Stephens had a 50-50 ball tip and he won it and that set the tone, even though we got down nine twice, but that set the tone with us with our energy. Them hitting those 3’s early, Tyus Battle really set the tone for them. They’re making 3’s and we’re missing layups, and that’s a big difference. They were just tremendous.”
“Tyus Battle set the tone with those 3’s, and Andrew White, he was an All-American tonight. He was just surreal. He was fantastic. A couple times, we had some great defense, he just had better offense. He had a couple shot-clock 3’s which were big, but we just had some chances there, both in the first and second half, where we’re just kind of right there and we just go scoreless. We had those scoring droughts, that have just been our Achilles heel.”
On the offensive play:
“You’ve got to give Syracuse credit on that. I don’t think we were as good today as we did against Syracuse when we beat them two weeks ago, whenever that was. We missed some shots. We took probably too many 3’s. Now, a couple obviously were late because we don’t shoot that many 3’s normally, but obviously some were late because of the score. We missed a lot of layups. That’s who we’ve been all year along. We are just severely limited offensively.”
“As I told the guys at the three-minute mark timeout – the under four-minute timeout, at the three-minute mark – I said, ‘Hey, this game’s over. Our focus now moves straight to Pitt. We play Pitt at 7 on Tuesday, and we have to win the game. We’ve got to be ready to go. And this game, we’re not talking about this game. When I get in the locker room, our focus will be straight on the Pitt Panthers. That’s who we’ve got to lock in on.’”
Jim Boeheim
On Georgia Tech:
“I think they’re very good defensively and they either do their matchup (zone) or they switch and play man. They’re obviously better with their matchup, but we shot the ball well (and) they had to play man, and we were able to get stuff against them in the man. It’s hard to play a good matchup. Good matchup is the hardest defense to play against. Louisville plays it and it’s a very difficult defense to play against. I think Georgia Tech has done a fantastic job with their defense. They won eight games in this league, they’ve beaten a lot of really good teams.”
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