Girard's hot night and sloppy play doom Tech in a 80-63 loss to Syracuse

ATLANTA- Georgia Tech dropped the fifth straight ACC game and all three of the homestand in an 80-63 loss to Syracuse. To make things worse, the Orange fans took over a large chunk of McCamish Pavilion during the game. Josh Pastner’s squad falls to 1-8 in ACC play this season one spot ahead of ACC winless Louisville.

Tech is off to the worst start in ACC play since the 2014-15 season under Brian Gregory. The Jackets started that season 1-9 and finished 3-15 in the ACC.

Joe Girard was the great equalizer for Jim Boeheim’s team with a 28-point performance including hitting six of 10 from three and adding five rebounds and seven assists in all 40 minutes of action.

“Girard got to give him credit hit some tough shots. I thought we defended really well. We went cold at the end of the first half with a 14-0 run or something like that. We started out great and our starts have been outstanding, we haven’t maintained the 40 minutes and that has been the struggle. We made a great comeback and fell off the cliff.

We needed more out of our guys, I love we had 20 assists on 25 made field goals, but 16 turnovers are too many. When we got the ball in the middle we needed Jalon to play at a high level. I have total confidence in him in the middle and there were other times our guards didn’t get the ball to the middle,” Tech head coach Josh Pastner said. “We had some great looks at certain times we just didn’t hit them.”

The Orange shot 55% for the game and had 18 free throw attempts compared to Tech’s six. The Jackets shot 43% from the field and attempted 31 three-pointers hitting on 32% of their outside shots. That was the most three-point attempts since the four-overtime loss to Georgia State in 2020.

Turnovers also killed Tech with 12 in the first half and 16 overall. The Orange had a 24-7 edge on points off turnovers. Most of Tech’s first-half turnovers came against the Syracuse press that Orange coach Jim Boeheim employed after his team fell down 11 early.

“I thought (Girard) hit some tough shots and he was the difference in the game plus our 16 turnovers. Girard is a really great player and he is playing like a first or second-team All-Conference player. He is a shotmaker, in the past, they had other guys, but he has had to take over," Pastner said.

Tech cut the lead to six with 7:15 left in the game, but Tech was outscored 17-4 in the final 6:22 of the game.

“We scored on the press and other times we had layups and we passed the ball, we had layups and were trying to play in the margin instead of scoring the ball. We need points and we’ve got to get to 70 and today we got to 63,” Pastner said.

Pastner said the issues on the offensive side of the ball are not effort based and he understands why fans are unhappy with the last two seasons.

“Our guys are giving their maximum effort, there are stretches we are not scoring the ball and we’ve got to get to 70. Losing stinks and our results to this point are not acceptable and I don’t find them acceptable, and our fans don’t. The only way to win the crowd back is to win games,” Pastner said. “The frustration and disappointment from the fans, they have every right to be frustrated and to win the crowd we’ve got to win games. It is not an effort thing, it is us going in scoring droughts. Basketball is a funny game. Virginia is 2-8 last year and they end up winning the ACC Championship. Sports are a funny thing.”

Girard scored 18 points in the first half to lead the charge for the Orange including a stretch where he hit 12 of 14 points for the Orange as they erased a Tech 11-point lead.

“Our interior defense got a little bit better and we started off slowly defensively. Joe had a huge first half and a huge game. He was tremendous. Smith is a pretty good defensive player and he was tremendous. Judah made some tremendous passes,” Boeheim said. “Our press got them to shoot a little quicker.”

In the first half, Deebo Coleman was the bright spot for the Jackets hitting on all four of his shots for 11 points. Jalon Moore and Miles Kelly each had seven points, but Kelly continued to struggle with his shot hitting just 1 of 7 on threes.

Coleman ended up with 17 points on 5-8 from three. He predicted a shot shooting performance on Friday during his media avail saying he had stayed in the gym this week until his fingertips bled working on his shooting.

“I knew coming into this game they would run a lot of zone, with the zone you get good looks from the outside and I stayed in the gym,” Coleman said of his hot performance.

Kelly added 13 points but he took 11 threes and 14 shots to get the 13 points. Jalon Moore was also in double figures with 11 points but he took 13 shots to get there and battled foul trouble almost the entire game after picking up his third foul midway through the first half. That was the turning point in the game where the Orange took command of the game.

Tech started the game by scoring 21 points in the first 7:33 of the game building that 11-point lead. It took the Jackets almost 21 minutes of game time to score the next 21 points. Coleman said once Cuse switched to the press, the team lost poise and didn’t play well.

“I don’t know why it bothers us so much when they pressed us, we’ve been good against the press and we turned it over and they sped us up,” Coleman said.

The Jackets had three goal-tending calls go against them as well in the game on mistimed blocks at the rim. They were outscored 44-24 in the paint as well.

“Not having a shot blocker that we had the first five years, our center was All-First Team defense the first five years and we don’t have that this year. Part of shot blocking is timing and having that instinct to do it,” Pastner said.

Pastner’s teams have typically been very hard-nosed with a clutch player leading on both ends whether that was Josh Okogie or Jose Alvarado who are both in the NBA now. Pastner said his team may be too nice and doesn’t have that killer personality on the team for the second straight season.

“We have a good group of guys, maybe they are too nice. They do things the right way and they are a joy to coach. Losing is hard for everybody. I know how upset the fans get, but it is hard on the players too and it is hard on me and the staff too. To our guys' credit, they still keep fighting. Our margin of error is slim to none, maybe none. We don’t have that type of mentality that we’ve had in the past this year or last year, but we have good guys and they do a great job, but when you need that bucket, we don’t have that guy to go get that bucket. Or just making sure we get a stop and get in transition. Our guys are giving everything they have, they are the best they can be. We just have to break through the barrier and get a win,” Pastner said on the lack of a killer on his team.

Tech returned to the early season lineup of Smith, Kelly, Coleman, Moore, and Howard. Lance Terry (hamstring) and Tristan Maxwell (hip pointer) both missed the game with injuries. Maxwell’s injury is more of a long-term situation according to Pastner.

The Jackets return to action on Tuesday night with a 9 pm tipoff at Clemson.

Deebo Coleman started off hot hitting a pair of threes and the Jackets hit six of seven shots to take a 15-8 lead at the first media timeout. Tech extended the lead by working the inside and midrange game to 21-10 leading to Boeheim's timeout with 12:53 to go in the half. Jalon Moore picked up three quick fouls leading to him leaving the game with 10:56 to go and Ja’von Franklin coming in. Joseph Girard scored eight straight points to erase Tech’s lead and give the Orange their first lead of the game 26-25. Deebo Coleman snapped a 17-0 run with a three to make it 33-28 after 13 of 15 points from Girard. Jalon Moore shot the first free throws of the half with one second left to break a 3:59 scoring drought with one of two as Tech trailed 40-33 at the break.

Jalon Moore picked up his fourth foul just over a minute into the second half. Cuse pulled away 52-39 thanks to another scoring drought of nearly four minutes. Ja’von Franklin snapped it with a layup. Tech hit five straight field goals to pull within six, 57-51 with under 10 to go. The Jackets trailed 61-54 at the third media timeout with 7:42 to go. The Orange went on a 6-0 run to extend the lead to 12, 69-57 leading to Pastner's timeout. The Orange went up 13 just ahead of the final media timeout, 71-58.