Georgia Tech knew it wouldn’t be easy, opening ACC play on the road at Maryland with Robert Carter Jr. in warm-ups on the bench injured. But it probably shouldn’t have been quite this hard.
The Terrapins put on a 3-point shooting display, making 10 of 19 threes, and led by as many as 20 points on their way to a 77-61 rout in front of a crowd of 12,545 at Comcast Center Saturday.
Tech (9-5, 0-1) dropped its eighth straight ACC opener. Next up, the Yellow Jackets travel to No. 7 Duke on Tuesday, the day Carter Jr. is scheduled to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery.
Without him, the Yellow Jackets were left searching for a new identity at a tough time to do so. That was clear in the stat sheet too. Who would have figured freshman Quinton Stephens would be the first Yellow Jacket into double figures scoring Saturday afternoon? The 6-foot-8 wing made back to back 3-pointers late in the second half to reach 10 points. He didn’t get there until 7:11 remained in the game.
Tech was still down by 15 points, though, even with his flurry. Marcus-Georges Hunt hit a 3-pointer with 1:34 left to give him 11 points. And senior guard Trae Golden finished with 10 points.
Nick Faust made his first four 3-point shots and finished with 16 points off the bench to lead the Terrapins (10-5, 2-0).
The Terrapins made seven of 12 3-pointers in the first half to open up a 14-point halftime lead and command of the game. Tech, meanwhile got its only 3-pointer of the first half from Jason Morris. Tech wasn’t able to dominate in the paint either, getting outscored 18-16 in the paint in the first half.
Kammeon Holsey got his first start of the season in place of Carter Jr. He came out active, attempting five shots in the game’s first seven minutes, and making three of them. He scored Tech’s first three field goals of the game to keep them afloat during an onslaught of Maryland offense. The Terrapins used three 3-pointers to open up a 20-9 lead in the first six minutes of the game.
Holsey would not score again, however, and finished with six points on 3-for-8 shooting.
Half Maryland’s team, it seemed, was looking eye-to-eye with Daniel Miller, Tech’s 6-foot-11 senior center. The Terrapins used a pair of 6-foot-9 wings to give Tech match-up problems on the perimeter. Case in point was 6-foot-9 Evan Smotrycz sizing up 6-foot-3 Tech guard Chris Bolden on the perimeter and thinking better of it. He drove Bolden to the goal and scored a lay-up to give Maryland a 24-13 lead midway through the first half.
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