Georgia Tech traveled down to Miami on Saturday needing a big ACC road win and the team took an early lead and never looked back with a blowout win over the shorthanded Canes 87-60. The Jackets improved to 11-8 on the season at 7-6 in ACC play while Miami fell to 7-13 (3-12 ACC).
Tech opened the second half with a Mike Devoe three to go up 33 on the Canes and cruised along allowing Josh Pastner to stretch out his bench.
Really proud of our guys. I mean, we really played at a very high level on both sides of the ball for both halves of the game," Pastner said. "I have tremendous respect for coach (Jim) Larranaga and Miami's program. I mean, they've been extremely successful. They've had the injury with (Chris) Lykes, and a couple of the (other) injuries I know that makes it really tough.
Devoe hit a career-high seven threes in the game scoring 29 points in just 29 minutes while also debuting a new hairdo.
"It might be a little hairdo, but it was my teammates finding me for open looks," Devoe said of his hot start. "I had great opportunities to shoot it. Once I saw that first one go in, it just kept going."
Devoe said he will likely stick with the hairdo after his hot hand on Saturday.
"I just switched it up, I mean it is a good luck charm right now so I think I got to keep it with the hot shots I made today," he said. "Khalid Moore's sister does hair and she came over and did it the day before we left, she did Jordan's hair too. Maybe we have to get our hair done for us to play a really good game."
After a couple of rough outings from three, Devoe said the Jackets 11 of 26 performance was due especially after a break after three games in five days last week and a game canceled against Boston College due to COVID giving the Jackets an extended rest.
"We were bound to get another great night of shooting," he said. "So we felt that energy this morning, we had our morning stretch and guys just felt energized and we were ready to dog and we could just feel that energy."
The extended lead allowed Rodney Howard to play major minutes and he responded with his best game as a Jacket with 8 points off the bench and three rebounds in 17 minutes of action. Pastner emptied the bench with four minutes to go getting valuable minutes for Saba Gigiberia as well.
Elijah Olaniyi led the Canes with 18 points in 35 minutes as Miami entered the game with just six available scholarship players and lost star guard Isaiah Wong to an injury late in the first half, he had just 4 points and three turnovers in 18 minutes.
The 27-point win was the largest margin of victory in an ACC road game in Tech history surpassing a March 3, 2011 game at Wake Forest that the Jackets won 80-54 in Paul Hewitt's last season.
"We played obviously the three games in five days, hard-fought games, intense games. Monday, we gave the guys off. Tuesday, we had a good long, hard practice and we conditioned because, at the time we practice, we knew we were not going to play BC the next day. So we conditioned the heck out of the guys. We ran a lot because I wanted to make sure we kept our conditioning," Pastner said of the leadup to Saturday. "Wednesday we gave them off and then we had two hard practices Thursday and Friday, which I thought continued to keep our conditioning so I thought we had a good bounce in our step and anytime you can win on the road (t is big). For this group for this year to have that largest road margin of victory at Georgia Tech and in an ACC road game, I thought we were good."
The other two of Tech's big three, Moses Wright and Jose Alvarado also shot the ball well, Alvarado had 16 points on six-of-eight shooting with six assists and three steals while Wright had 14 points and 12 rebounds.
The Jackets shot 57.1-percent from the field in the game and 11 of 26 for three (42.3-percent). Defensively the Jackets held Miami to 39-percent shooting and just five of 17 from 3.
Tech opened the game with a 12-0 run and jumped out 26-7 behind a transition three by Mike Devoe and the Canes were never within 17 after that. The Jackets led at 48-18 behind 16 points from Devoe including four for four from three. Wright had 10 points in the first half and Alvarado had 9 for the big three for the Jackets. Tech forced 12 turnovers in the first half leading to 10 fastbreak points.
Wright scored his 1,000-career point in the game joining Alvarado and Devoe who joined that club this season. Wright also hit 500 rebounds earlier this season. He is the 21st player to hit 1,000 career points and 500 rebounds in Tech history and the 47th member of the 1,000 career points club.
"I was more focused on getting the 500 rebounds to be honest," Wright said. "I really didn't know how many points I was away from getting 1,000 points and I really didn't care about that, just the 500 rebounds excited me."
Wright joined his former teammate Ben Lammers in the 1,000/500 club. Rich Yunkus (69-71) holds the record in that club with 2,232 points and 955 rebounds.
Pastner pointed out how unlikely Wright's journey has been transforming from a tennis star in high school to a college basketball player in just six years.
"Moses Wright the 47th Georgia Tech player to hit the 1,000-point, a tremendous honor, considering where Moses started where he came in," Pastner said. "I don't think anybody had projected him to be a 1,000 points score so a really great honor for him."
Alvarado is just 43 assists away from joining the 1,000 points/400 assists club that only eight Jackets have achieved. The last one was Jarrett Jack in 2005.
Georgia Tech hopes to travel to Blacksburg on Monday for a Tuesday night game against Virginia Tech at 7 pm. The Hokies have been in a COVID shutdown, but Pastner was hopeful the game will be played.
"We're planning to play Virginia Tech on Tuesday at seven o'clock. So we will plan on leaving for Blacksburg on Monday and plan on playing Tuesday," Pastner said. "The expectation, you know, is that we're playing Tuesday at seven at Virginia Tech."
