Tech bounces back with a 67-59 win over #21 Mississippi State

ATLANTA- Coming off a pair of losses Georgia Tech pulled off the first upset win of the Damon Stoudamire era with a 67-59 win over #21 Mississippi State on Tuesday night. The Jackets went up 16 with 4:51 remaining on an Ibrahima Sacko dunk off a steal and then did not hit another field goal in the final 4:51 of the game instead hitting nine free throws to maintain a lead. At the same time, Mississippi State also struggled offensively and could not get past an eight-point barrier.

Tech missed 17 of their final 19 shots and still won the game. The last non-dunk or layup for Tech came with 11:25 left in the game from Kyle Sturdivant. State wasn’t much better missing 15 of their final 18 shots.

“As a group, I loved our defensive intensity and from the jump, we made a concerted effort to be in position on defense and be in gaps with active hands. I was very pleased with it. In the first half, we were good on offense and a little off in the second half,” Stoudamire said.

Georgia Tech never trailed in the game and the game was only tied three times.

Guard Miles Kelly led the way for the Yellow Jackets with 22 points including hitting eight of his 10 free throws. He added 12 rebounds for his first career double-double in 34 minutes. Tech had 12 offensive rebounds and 45 rebounds overall while State had 43 rebounds.

“I like Miles' game, especially in the first half. I think what Miles is learning from me, my thing with him, forget being here at Tech. If you want to play in the NBA you have to play hard all the time. You have to be a two-way player and you have to defend and make plays off the bounce. I was proud of him today with the 12 rebounds. Miles is a bit tougher than people think. Once we clean up the shooting percentage and he knocks down some shots, I think he is an All-league/All-American type player. He answered the challenge to play with some toughness and more grit,” Stoudamire said.

Kelly was red-hot in the first half with 14 points on three of five shooting from three, but he hit just two of his ten shot attempts in the second half, but added eight second-half rebounds including two offensive boards and a key assist on a three by

Stoudamire shuffled his starting lineup inserting freshman guard Nait George for Amaree Abram and Ebenezer Dowuona for Tyzhaun Claude along with Miles Kelly, Kowacie Reeves and Baye Ndongo.

“I made some lineup changes and I’m not really big on lineup changes and I’m not big on talking about lineup changes. Each guy has a job to do and I have a job to do as well. When making changes, I look at overall what impacts the team and not what impacts me. I don’t make hasty decisions. I’m a process guy and I sit on it. I inserted Nate and Ebe into the lineup. I’m just now looking at the numbers that they gave us size to match up with Bell and the way he can finish around the bucket, he only got four attempts. Ebe did his job tonight. His numbers don’t show it, but the 18 minutes he played, he did his job. He has been working his butt off to be a pleaser and it is nice to reward him and let him impact the game.

Naithan George made his first career start scoring 11 points with four rebounds and an assist.

“It was surreal and knowing that coach trusts me and it was an eye opener. He told me to stay ready and I trusted coach,” George said of making his first career start.

Stoudamire joked after the game that George should still be playing high school ball right now and he was the starting point guard against a top-25 team instead.

“With Nait is weird, I took Nait late, he reclassified and should be in high school I’ve been seeing him coming and playing well for a long time but there are two veteran guys ahead of him and you look the other way. He got his time to see what it looks like. Nait has wore on me, I like the way he plays and the way guys play with him and he has a calming influence on guys. There will be ups and downs and sometimes you have to see what you got. He played well, he had his ups and downs, he played 31 minutes and hasn’t played 31 minutes total until tonight. He got tired late and his legs got tired, but what he did against a top-25 team,” Stoudamire said.

George was a late addition to the Tech roster after Jalen Forrest a transfer from Presbyterian did not qualify over the summer to enroll.

“Nait fell in my lap. I had a scholarship it was late in the game and we were getting recruited by low-majors/mid-majors, but good schools. He came here and he might’ve said in August and he got here the first day of class or maybe the day before. It wasn’t really a recruitment, it was really speed dating. I was like hey man I got a scholarship and he was like hey coach I want to come. Since he has been here he has gotten better each day. Once he gets stronger and gets better, he will be a very good player. He played 31 minutes against the 21st ranked team in the country and then we have another one coming up on Saturday. I’m proud of him. It is not easy. He played one game and then started,” Stoudamire said.

George provided an early spark for the offense with a basket and lob to Ndongo for a quick four points. Miles Kelly hit his first three but State was able to score five straight points to tie it at seven at the first media timeout. Deebo Coleman and Kyle Sturdivant were the first two subs for the Jackets. Tech held a 21-15 lead at the third media timeout. Miles Kelly hit a three with 17.9 left in the game to put Tech up 11 and Kyle Sturdivant stole a pass and drove the court with four seconds left to put the Jackets up 13 at the break 39-26. Miles Kelly led all scorers with 14 points on 3-4 shooting from three while George added eight points in the first half. Tech’s defense held the Bulldogs to 31% shooting. The Jackets shot 52 percent and 6-13 from three.

Tech extended the lead to 41-26 out of the half before State hit a pair of threes to cut it to 41-32 with 17 minutes to go. Kelly stopped a three-on-one break as the Bulldogs aimed to extend a run to 8-0 forcing a turnover and then hitting a corner three ahead of the first media timeout to put Tech up 44-32 with 15:48 left on a third shot attempt of a possession. The Jackets missed nine of the next 10 shots and still held a 54-42 lead at the third media timeout with 6:45 remaining. Facing one second on the shot clock, Tech threw up a prayer and State rebounded the ball for some reason turned it over and Ibrahima Sacko dunked the ball to put the Jackets up 16, 58-42. The Jackets closed out with a major scoring funk allowing the Bulldogs to get to 50 points, but kept at least an eight-point lead.

Off the bench, Sturdivant added 12 points in 12 minutes including hitting three of his four free throws in the final stretch of the game.

Tech shot 48.3 percent in the first half and shot just 21.9 percent in the second half while State shot 30.3 percent in the first half and 30.8 percent for the game. Tech had a 16-5 advantage on points off turnovers.

The Jackets had a chance to ice the game a little faster than they did, but the team made some mistakes trying to kill the clock with two minutes to go.

“We have to remember the clock is our friend late, but collectively as a group, I’m happy with how we responded to the Cincy game. I challenged the fellas and I thought they did a great job today,” Stoudamire said.

State played without big man Tolu Smith who averaged almost 16 points and 9 rebounds a game for the Bulldogs last year.

Bulldogs coach Chris Jans said he warned his team that the Jackets would be hungry after a two-game losing skid coming into State’s first true road game.

“First and foremost tip of the cap to Coach Stoudamire and his staff and players. As coaches, we know how this goes. They lost two in a row and I’m sure their practices were rally the troupes type situations and they had a team that hadn’t lost coming into their gym. We talked about going on the road for the first time in a true road test. I asked them after the game what did you see after the game, what would they say about us in the first half and second half, why. We dug ourselves such a hole and then we played harder in the second half. I’m not sure why we got off to the start we did. We didn’t play with the same intensity, but the first 11 possessions you get five turnovers,” Jans said.

The Bulldogs hit just seven of their 30 three-point attempts in the game.

“That happens you work your tail off and then you have to jump up and shoot the basketball and we were 7-30 and that isn’t going to win a lot of games on the road and we missed a lot. I thought Georgia Tech played really well and they took away things a lot of teams haven’t taken away from us,” Jans said.

Stoudamire benched guard Amaree Abram who had started the previous four games for Tech and he did not play on Tuesday night.

“Amaree is fine, it was just my decision. Everyone is getting used to me. I’m not big on all the little things and what we talk about. I keep that between me and him. We still need him and this thing changes all the time. Way back when I was in Portland, I can’t remember it was 02 or 03, if you look at my stats in 02-03 it went down to 5 or 6 points, they got mad at me and benched me for 14 straight games. It doesn’t always go your way, you’ve got to work and you’ve got to work. I think Amaree is going to be fine and he is one of mine and I trust him to do the right thing. I think he will do the right thing and be a good player for us,” Stoudamire said.

Tech hosts #7 Duke at 2:15 pm on Saturday in McCamish Pavilion.