Second Half Surge Lifts Yellow Jackets over Blue Hose
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Georgia Tech used a 16-0 run to start the second half and rally from a 25-24 halftime deficit to take the 52-38 win over the Presbyterian College men's basketball team tonight in front of 5,733 fans at McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta, Ga.
PC drops to 0-2 early in the season while Georgia Tech improves to 2-0.
Khalid Mutakabbir led the Blue Hose with 13 points and seven assists, including a three-for-six effort from beyond the three-point arc. He was followed by Jordan Downing with eight points. Joshua Clyburn pulled down a team-leading eight rebounds.
The Yellow Jackets were led by Marcus Georges-Hunt and Robert Carter, Jr., both of whom had 10 points. Daniel Miller paced the team with nine rebounds.
PC shot 37.5% from the field, but was just five-of-15 in three-pointers. Georgia Tech shot 33.3% from the field and held the rebounding edge, 34-30. Turnovers were a key with the Yellow Jackets holding the 18-7 advantage and posting a 23-10 margin in points off turnovers. GT controlled the paint as well, 28-14.
Georgia Tech was 11-of-16 from the charity stripe, compared to three-for-seven for PC.
The Yellow Jackets scored the game's first seven points before a William Truss layup at the 14:52 mark made it a 7-2 game. Down 12-4, PC used five points by Mutakabbir to take a 7-0 run of its own to cut the margin to three, 12-9, with 12:25 left in the first half.
Georgia Tech led 14-9 when Downing hit back-to-back baskets, including a three-pointer, to help the Blue Hose knot the game at 14-14, at the 6:28 mark. The Yellow Jackets retook the lead at 5:42 off two free throws by Udofia to make it 16-14.
Mutakabbir banked in a three-pointer to give PC a 17-16 lead with 4:56 to go and on the next possession hit another three as the Blue Hose took a 20-16 lead at the 4:04 mark. Georgia Tech ended the 6-0 run with a basket by Jason Morris to make it 20-18 with 3:51 on the clock.
Both teams traded baskets with PC taking the three-point, 25-22 lead at the 1:58 mark off baskets by Truss and Downing. A basket by Georges-Hunt at 1:06 cut the PC lead to one at 25-24, but GT could not convert the basket as the first half expired with the Blue Hose leading 25-24.
PC shot 45.5% in the first half with Mutakabbir leading the Blue Hose with 12 points. The Yellow Jackets shot 25.0% with Udofia pacing the team with seven points.
After a second-half opening basket by PC to make it 27-24 at 19:48, Georgia Tech scored the next 18 in a row the next eight minutes, based in part on multiple baskets by Carter, Kammeon Holsey and Chris Bolden, and took a 42-37 lead with 11:23 on the clock.
Truss ended the PC drought off a Truss basket at 10:45 with Georgia Tech holding the 42-29 lead. A three-pointer by Austin Anderson and a basket by Downing cut the deficit to 10 at 46-36 with 5:08 on the clock. Truss cut it to eight off a layup with 2:34 left, as part of a 7-0 run by the Blue Hose over a four-and-a-half minute span.
Georges-Hunt ended the GT drought with a field goal at 1:23 as the Yellow Jackets went back up by 10, 48-38. Carter made it a 13-point game with a three-pointer as Georgia Tech pulled away in the late stages to win 52-38.
The Blue Hose next travel to Omaha, Neb., to take on 13th-ranked Creighton Sunday, Nov. 18 at 3 p.m. (ET), before heading to Madison, Wisc., to face Wisconsin Tuesday, Nov. 20 at 8 p.m. (ET).
