Jackets unable to hang with No. 16 UNC in 91-75 home loss

Georgia Tech had a tough assignment on their hands on Saturday afternoon as No. 16 North Carolina came to McCamish Pavilion, and the Tar Heels were as good as advertised, especially the inside combo of Caleb Wilson and Henry Veesar, as the visitors from Chapel Hill build a substantial lead in the first half and coasted to a 91-75 road victory in ACC play.

The Atlanta native Wilson and Veesar combined for 42 points in the win, including Wilson scoring a team-high 22 while Veesar finished with a double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds for Carolina (17-4, 5-3 ACC). Wilson added six rebounds and five assists.

“I thought we played hard. At times I thought we didn’t execute the way I wanted us to execute,” said Georgia Tech head coach Damon Stoudamire after the game. “There were a couple pockets in the game I wish we could’ve had back. I thought there were a couple plays at the end of the first half that hurt us. We were in striking distance, but the game got away from us a little bit. Then the second half we were just never able to put stress on the game.”

“We’ve got to figure some things out,” added Stoudamire. “That’s where we’re at, and like I told the players, it’s crazy because as kids I think at times they start to panic. I think that they tend to want or start deviating from different things. And it’s not anything against them. I think it’s just human nature. As I told them, you get under the microscope, you’ve got to learn to take the good and the bad. And like I told those guys, right now you’ve got to figure out who is with you and who isn’t if we’re going to get this thing going back the right way.”

Georgia Tech (11-11, 2-7 ACC) was led by Baye Ndongo who was one of the few bright spots on the day as he scored a game-high 27 points. Kam Craft and Kowacie Reeves Jr. also finished in double figures with 15 and 14 points apiece, respectively. Craft made three 3s for the second consecutive game.

“I must say I thought Baye was really good tonight. Baye really played well,” said Stoudamire. “He did a lot of good things out there. He fought. He played big minutes. I thought he really got better as the game went on as well.”

Along with Wilson and Veesar’s big afternoons, the Tar Heels had two other double-digit scores with Seth Trimble adding 18 points and Luka Bogavac scoring 16.

After the Tar Heels opened the game with the first seven points, Georgia Tech’s Ndongo had five straight points of his own, including a make from 3-point land to cut Carolina’s lead to 7-5 at the first media timeout with 15:47 left in the opening half.

Tech took a brief lead at 8-7, but Carolina quickly grabbed the momentum and used a pair of 3s from Veesar and Evans to take a 22-14 lead with 10:17 left in the first half as Stoudamire used his first timeout to attempt to stop the run right there.

The Heels continued to stretch their lead, however, taking a 33-21 advantage to the under 8 timeout of the first half with Wilson hitting a 3 and a lay-up in transition to cap the run before Tech cut it back to 11 on a Jaeden Mustaf bucket and free throw.

After Georgia Tech cut the deficit to eight on a Reeves 3 to make it 42-34, Carolina closed out the half strong, including a pair of Wilson dunks and a Trimble bucket off an offensive rebound just before the buzzer to put the Tar Heels up 52-37 at the half.

Wilson had 14 points at the break while his teammate Veesar was just one rebound shy of a double-double with 11 points and nine boards. Tech’s Ndongo had 12 points to lead his team at the break.

The second half started with a Veesar dunk to put the Heels up 17. Tech cut the deficit to 12 on an Akai Fleming jumper at the 17:13 mark, but that as the closest the Jackets got the rest of the way.

Carolina went up by as many as 21 late in the second half as the Heels used a balanced effort over the final 20 minutes and scored in several different ways to keep control of the game.

The Heels outscored Georgia Tech in points off turnovers 18-0 in the game as Carolina only turned the ball over two times. Carolina also had 44 points in the paint, 26 off the bench, 20 on second chances and 16 on the fast break, leading Tech in all four of those categories.

“For me when I look at games, I look at the margins,” said Stoudamire. “I think most games are played in the margins. And for me in basketball, in this game it came down to a couple things…Obviously they’ve got a couple good players, but we had 12 turnovers and they scored 18 points of our turnovers. They got 20 second-chance points. That’s winning the margins. That’s 38 points right there.”

Georgia Tech will next head out to the West Coast for a two-game trip to the state of California as the Jackets visit California on Wednesday for an 8 p.m. Eastern tip followed by a matchup at Stanford on Saturday scheduled for anonther 8 p.m. Eastern start.

“First nine games of conference, 2-7, obviously that’s not where we want to be, but we’ve got another nine games to right the ship,” said Stoudamire. “It’s not going to be easy, but we’ve got to put in the work. That’s where I told them that regardless of whatever happens, you’ve got to fight for yourself. Fight for yourself.”

“I feel like we can turn it around,” added Stoudamire. “I would say this, the one thing about me and I’ve always been this way…nobody can tell me what I’m not doing because I’m hardest on myself. So I know where we’re at, and I understand that. But the one thing you’ll never hear from me, period, is it’s on me to right the ship. I’ll never throw kids under the bus. I’ll never point fingers. We’ve just got to get better. That’s how I am, and I’m alright with that. I’m alright with who I am, and nothing on the outside is ever going to define me. Again, nobody can put more pressure on me than I put on myself to have success.”

The Jackets were once again without freshman big man Mo Sylla who missed another game while wearing a medical boot on the bench. Peyton Marshall also missed Saturday’s game with an undisclosed injury.

Carolina has a quick turnaround as the Tar Heels return home for a Monday night matchup vs. Syracuse at 7 p.m. They then have a few extra days to prepare for the big rivalry matchup vs. Duke on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. in Chapel Hill.