Jackets battle to the end but can't fully dig out of hole to fall at Virginia Tech

For the second straight game, Georgia Tech was competitive in the first half and fought to the end, but a slow start to the second half eventually made the difference as the Jackets suffered a 71-65 loss at Virginia Tech on Tuesday night.

Georgia Tech (11-10, 2-6 ACC) trailed by just six at 36-30 at halftime, but Virginia Tech outscored them 17-10 to open the second half to go up by 13 eight minutes into the second half.

The Jackets continued to battle to the final horn, going on an 11-0 run to cut the deficit 65-61 and then got a Lamar Washington lay up with 19 seconds left to get to within two of the lead at 67-65, but they were unable to fully dig out of the hole as Virginia Tech was able to do enough down the stretch to put the game away as the Jackets lost its fifth game out of the last six.

“We played hard. You know I thought we played well enough to win,” said a frustrated Georgia Tech head coach Damon Stoudamire after the loss. “Most people call it a comeback. I don’t think it was a comeback. To hold a team to 33 percent from the field and 27 percent from the 3, we did our job. Offensively, we’ve got to be better. Our offense hurt us, and to me it’s not what most people think. You say shot selection, this or that, but no…we turned the ball over at the wrong time all the time. We just can’t do it. It’s got to pain you, and it has to hurt. That’s the reality of it.”

“Twenty points (Virginia) Tech scored off our turnovers, 16 second-chance points off of offensive rebounding…and the sad part about it is we still out-rebounded them,” added Stoudamire. “So we don’t get any payback for what we did, but we did what I like to say put a lot of stress on the game. That’s what I tell my team…we don’t give up. We threw a bad game out there against Pitt, but they responded then. And they responded again. They’re not getting the payback for it. I wish we could get some wins to get their chins up and make them feel better about themselves, but we’ve just got to keep grinding.”

The Hokies (16-6, 5-4 ACC) were led by Ben Hammond who scored a game-high 20 points. Three others scored in double figures for Virginia Tech, including Jailen Bedford with 14, Christian Gurdak with 11 and Tobi Lawal with 10. Hammond and Bedford made four free throws in the final 13 seconds to help seal the victory.

Gurdak added seven rebounds while Amani Hansberry led the home team in rebounds with eight.

Georgia Tech had four players in double led by Jaeden Mustaf‘s 16 points. He also had 11 rebounds to finish with a double-double. Baye Ndongo added 14 points as he went over 1,000-point mark for his career. He also pulled down nine rebounds.

Rounding out the the Jackets’ double-digit scorers were Washington with 12 points to go with five rebounds and five assists, and Kam Craft who had 11 points, including three 3-pointers. Kowacie Reeves Jr. scored eight points. Craft’s three 3s were the only Tech made from beyond the arc in the loss, finishing 3-of-17 in that category.

Using a slow offensive start by Georgia Tech to the second half, which was reminiscent of its tough stretch in this past Saturday’s loss to Clemson, Virginia Tech was able to stretch out its 36-30 halftime lead to 53-40 at the under 12 media timeout of the second half with 11:58 left in the game. The Jackets were held to just 4-of-11 from the field over that stretch while Virginia Tech took advantage of multiple fast-break opportunities and offensive rebounds.

The Jackets came out of the gates hot on Tuesday night, led by three early 3-pointers from Craft to build a 10-3 lead, but Virginia Tech fought right back with a 12-0 run to go back ahead 15-10 with right around 12 minutes remaining in the first half.

Georgia Tech answered the run with one of its own, going on a 14-5 spurt to take a 24-20 lead at the 7:22 mark, but the Hokies had the final run in the roller-coaster first half, scoring 16 to Jackets’ 6 to head into the locker room at the break with a 36-30 advantage.

Craft led Georgia Tech in scoring over the first 20 minutes with 11 points, nine coming on his three made 3s, while Mustaf added seven points. Virginia Tech’s Hammond scored 10 in the first half.

The Jackets were without starter Akai Fleming and freshman big man Mo Sylla who both missed the game in Blacksburg due to injury. Sylla has missed several games in January due to a foot/ankle injury and was back in a medical boot Tuesday.

“We’ve just got to keep fighting. That’s what we do,” said Stoudamire. “We’ve been shorthanded…you know it seems like I’ve been shorthanded for two years, but at the same time too, no excuses this way. We’ve got to figure it out. It’s still actually a lot of fun trying to figure it out on the run. We’ve just got to keep fight, we’ve just got to keep fighting, we’ve just got to keep fighting. That’s the beauty of coaching. When you’re coaching at a deficit at times, it makes you have to continuously do different things to try and win games, keep us in games depending on the moment.”

Georgia Tech will be back at home on Saturday afternoon for another tough ACC test when the Jackets welcome North Carolina to McCamish Pavilion for a 2 p.m. tip.

“This group is resilient,” said Stoudamire. “We have one more game, and then we’re in the home stretch of it so there’s a lot of basketball to go. The biggest thing for me is we’re going to keep fighting. We’re going to keep fighting. Again, I’m proud of this group, and we’re just going to figure it out…that’s all. We’ll figure it out.”

Virginia Tech is on its home court once again Saturday at noon to host ACC-leading Duke.

-JOL’s Kelly Quinlan contributed to this report.