Georgia Tech’s season opener against Miami (Ohio) was its first without Jose Alvarado and/or Moses Wright in the lineup since the end of the 2016-17 season, coach Josh Pastner’s first. In hindsight, without the ACC player of the year and the ACC defensive player of the year on the floor to control the tempo, fight for critical rebounds and notch defensive stops, the Yellow Jackets’ 72-69 loss to the RedHawks Tuesday night at McCamish Pavilion might not have been a great surprise.
“Those are big losses,” Pastner said of Alvarado and Wright. “It’s just going to take time for us to catch up. We’ve got a good team. We just need more time, experience and more minutes to play together and we’ll get better as the year goes.”
Tech (0-1) led 69-63 when guard Michael Devoe hit a layup off the glass with 2:29 to play. It appeared that the defending ACC champions, near the end of an uneven night in which Pastner weaved in several new players into the lineup with varying degrees of success, were going to finally be rid of an experienced RedHawks team.
But the last two of Devoe’s game-high 26 points were the last that the Jackets scored. Tech went empty on its final three possessions (not counting a last-second desperation shot) and Miami (1-0) scored the final nine points of the game.
Ahead 69-66, the Jackets missed three shots in one possession with under two minutes to play, after which Miami scored on a layup by Dae Dae Grant with 1:05 to play to cut the lead to 69-68. Tech had two shots in the next possession, the latter a fadeaway jump shot by forward Jordan Usher. Miami then scored the game-winner with 12.6 seconds left when 5-foot-8 Mekhi Lairy won an offensive rebound and scored on a putback.
With his team down 70-69, Pastner took two timeouts to set up the possession, which turned into a drive by Devoe to the basket. When he was double-teamed, he passed off to guard Deivon Smith, who was alone under the basket. But the pass was offline, and Smith had to win it off the floor and then rushed up an errant jumper. Miami’s Dalonte Brown rebounded and was fouled with 1.6 seconds left, and he hit both free throws for the final 72-69 lead. Freshman guard Miles Kelly’s desperation shot was off target.
“I thought I had an opportunity to score,” Devoe said. “They played pretty good defense on that, as well, so it was just tough. But we shouldn’t have been in that predicament at the end of the game like that. We should have put them away, but hats off to them – they played a great game (Tuesday).”
After time expired, Miami players sprinted off the bench, celebrating the biggest win of their careers and of coach Jack Owens’ tenure, now starting its fifth season. The RedHawks last defeated a power-conference school in the 2007-08 season. Miami brought back its top nine returning scorers from last season, when the RedHawks earned their first winning record (at 12-11) since the 2008-09 season.
“I want to be the best team in our league and to continue to get wins like this,” Owens said. “This is fun.”
Of the seven players with the most minutes for Miami Tuesday, one player was in his sixth year, two more were in their fifth years and three were in their fourth years on campus. The RedHawks’ experience was one reason why Pastner wasn’t alarmed by losing on opening night, unlike his grave concern when the Jackets opened last season with a quadruple-overtime loss to Georgia State. Tech joined Virginia, Pittsburgh and Nebraska among power-conference teams losing to mid-major schools on Tuesday.
“They have young guys at key spots,” Owens said. “We have older guys at key spots.”
Throughout the game, the Jackets often did not move the ball as their scheme calls for, settling for early jump shots. Tech finished with 11 assists on 24 field goals and turned the ball over 14 times. They shot 39.3% from the field.
“Sometimes on offense we wouldn’t run the sets that we needed to run,” Devoe said.
Point guards Kyle Sturdivant and Deivon Smith showed plenty of promise – Smith has rare explosiveness to the basket and speed up the floor – but keeping an offense with several new parts working together for the first time in a regular-season game was a hefty challenge.
“Both those guys, it’s new,” Pastner said. “We’ll get better with more experience. We’ll get better from this game.”
Center Rodney Howard also played well in his first extended playing time with Tech, finishing with his first career double-double (10 points, 13 rebounds) in 31 minutes. Late in the second half, he scored back-to-back baskets, set up by Smith and Devoe, for a personal 4-0 run that elevated the Jackets to a 67-61 lead.
“My teammates were just finding me and I just had to score it around the hoop,” Howard said.
Pastner liked the defense that his team played – Miami shot 39.1% from the field – but he’ll have to hope for scoring to come around. Devoe was 4-for-6 from 3-point range, but the rest of the team was 0-for-11 as the Jackets fell prey to Miami’s game plan to keep them away from the basket and try to make them win it from the perimeter.
Tech plays its second game of the season Friday night at home against Stetson.
“We’re going to be a good team,” Pastner said. “We’ve just got to keep playing and staying after it.”
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