Jackets squeeze the Orange 96-76 blowout win

SYRACUSE, NY— Georgia Tech pulled ahead early behind a barrage of threes from Miles Kelly and Lance Terry who combined for 54 points and never looked back in a blowout 96-76 win over Syracuse. Ja'von Franklin had the fifth career triple-double in Georgia Tech history with 14 points, 15 rebounds, and 10 assists.

"I think tonight was just about ball movement and the guys on the wing hitting their shots," Franklin said. "Everyone was trying to move the ball to get everyone involved. We were emphasizing moving the ball and trying to break down their zone defense. We had to just keep moving the ball."

Franklin actually picked up his triple-double on a kick out to Kelly for a long jumper.

"They told me I needed one more (assist) and Miles told me he was going to get it for me and that was his 30th point so I handed it off to him and he got 30 and I got the triple-double," Franklin said. "It was a lot of fun tonight."

The last Tech triple-double came from Iman Shumpert in 2011 against Virginia Tech when he had 22 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. The other three came from Bruce Dalrymple, Kenny Anderson, and Dennis Scott putting Franklin in rare company.

Tech had 35 made field goals on 27 assists.

Kelly and Terry both set career-highs as Yellow Jackets with 30 points for Kelly and 24 points for Terry.

"I feel like we've been practicing well and we've had the same mindset in practice even though we lost a couple of games and we've just carried that onto the court," Kelly said of the hot shooting of late.

Guard Kyle Sturdivant added a career-high 20 points, five rebounds and three assists as he helped break the Syracuse zone several times with his mid-range game as well.

It was the first time since 2021 against Clemson (Mike Devoe, Jordan Usher and Moses Wright) three Jackets scored 20 or more points in a game.

Kelly continued a hot run of games hitting 10 of his 19 shot attempts, 7-14 from three with three rebounds and three assists in 38 minutes. He has hit 18 of his last 37 three-point attempts over the last three games while averaging 24.3 points per game in those three games.

The sophomore guard even had an exam on Tuesday morning ahead of the game which is not exactly a slam dunk given the rigorous academic standards at Georgia Tech.

"It went pretty well for me," Kelly joked of his morning exam. "It went really well actually so I had a good exam and a great win and now we are going to the gas station."

Josh Pastner's team won for the fifth time in seven games with the two losses coming in narrow road defeats to Wake Forest and Pitt. The Jackets have been in every game until the final minutes since a blowout loss to Duke. Pastner said the team is final gelling just later than he expected.

It was a record-setting performance on multiple levels for the Jackets.

"It was a heck of an offensive game," Pastner said. "We can move the ball and had 27 assists on 35 made field goals. Miles Kelly had 30, Deebo Coleman was just great with the way he played and defensively, Ja'von Franklin had the fifth triple-double in school history and we had the most threes in the history of Georgia Tech. I went into the game thinking we might shoot 50 threes and we got close."

Deebo Coleman with the 18th three of the game for the Jackets in the second half broke the school record of 17 threes that was set against Clemson on January 24, 2001, in the Old AMC. Tech ended up 18-40, but

Coleman did the hard work offensively with eight assists and one turnover helping break down the Orange zone.

Making the win more impressive was the fact the Jackets were down to six rotation players for the game with Rodney Howard, Tristan Maxwell, and Deivon Smith all back in Atlanta.

Syracuse struggled outside hitting just 4 of 17 from three, but Tech's offensive efficiency just was too much for the Orange. Tech shot 52.2 percent overall in the game and 45 percent from three while Syracuse hit 48.2 percent overall. The four made threes to Tech's 18 makes was the difference.

Judah Mintz scored 23 points for the Orange and Jesse Edwards was a handful inside at times with 18 points and four blocks. Joe Girard III who helped the Orange to a win in Atlanta earlier this year with 28 points in a 17-point win in December was held to 3-10 shooting and 11 points.

"We made some adjustments and it worked," Pastner said of defending Girard. "I'm proud of our guys and the way they rotated to guys and the adjustments we made and they went on the floor and executed."

Georgia Tech came out on fire from three hitting 10 of 22 to take a 53-44 lead at the half behind 17 points from Miles Kelly (5-9 from three) and 12 each from Lance Terry and Kyle Sturdivant. Ja’von Franklin added 10 points and eight rebounds in the first half. Deebo Coleman was 0-5 from three with just two points but he had a career-high seven assists in the first half. The Orange got 14 each from Judah Mintz and center Jesse Edwards and shot 57.1 percent but the Orange were ineffective defensively against Tech’s outside shooting.

Franklin said he feels like the team is hitting its stride heading into the ACC Tournament a week from tonight.

"It is very exciting how we are playing and I think we are getting hot at the right time. We need to finish up this Boston College game on Saturday and try to stay hot going into Greensboro," Franklin said.

Pastner said his team was also excited to follow their tradition of going to the local gas station on the way to the airport or on the ride home from a road win. He said Tuesday night's tab would be a big one since the Jackets haven't been to the gas station since Georgia State in the opening week of the season.

"My boss Mr. Brad Stricklin our CFO, has the credit card and I told the guys, let's put up a big bill on Georgia Tech," Pastner joked after the game.

The Jackets conclude the regular season at Boston College on Saturday at 2 pm.

Georgia Tech went on two early runs including an 8-0 run ahead of the second media timeout to pull out a 29-21 lead with 11:32 left forcing Jim Boeheim to call a pair of early timeouts. Lance Terry was 3-3 from three during that stretch. GT extended the run to 11-1, before Cuse snapped it and the Jackets led 38-29 with 7:50 to go in the half. Miles Kelly hit back-to-back threes to stretch Tech’s first-half lead to 13, 46-33 leading to the third timeout of the game for Boeheim with 4:08 left. Syracuse went on a 7-0 run, but Ja’von Franklin hit a pair of late baskets to give Tech a 53-44 lead at the half.

The Jackets turned the Orange over twice to start the second half leading to two easy buckets and they added a transition three from Lance Terry to force Boeheim to burn his final timeout with 18:08 left. The Jackets extended the lead to 23, 71-48 with 16:10 left on a Terry three from the corner. The Orange cut the Tech lead to 17 but Franklin and Kelly responded including a three by Kelly to extend the lead to 78-56 with 10:50 left. Tech extended the lead to 24 on another Terry three before the third media timeout 86-62 with 5:59 left. Pastner was able to empty his bench late and play Freds Pauls Bagatskis and Cyril Martynov for the final two minutes of the game.