Tech falls at Louisville, Stoudamire questions officiating in 79-67 loss

LOUISVILLE- Georgia Tech lost a third-straight ACC game falling 76-67 at Louisville on Saturday night in the YUM Center. The Jackets fell to last place in the ACC under first-year coach Damon Stoudamire despite wins over North Carolina and Duke this season in a three-way tie with Louisville and Notre Dame who both have wins over Tech this season.

The bright spot was junior guard Miles Kelly setting a new career-high with 36 points. Kelly shot 11-20 from the field, 6-11 from three, and 8-10 from the line with three offensive rebounds and seven overall.

For Stoudamire, the officiating was the bigger story. Fouls called and not called defined the outcome of the game as the Cardinals shot 34 free throws compared to just 18 for the Jackets with both of the Jackets’ healthy big men fouling out. Louisville played the final eight minutes of the second half in the double bonus. Georgia Tech held a nine-point lead at that point in the game 60-51.

"Personally I'm confused with the refs," Stoudamire bluntly stated during his post-game press conference. "One day you play a team and they let you fight in there and the next day they call every foul. I'm confused. I don't know what to tell my guys. A lot of the time they let you literally fight guys up in there and they won't call the foul. Both teams shot a lot of free throws, but they shot 34 of them. I'm confused. They shot 34 of them, two guys fouled out and the guy they were guarding only had 12 points. I'm confused."

Tech played without starting center Ebenezer Dowuona (foot injury). His absence loomed large at freshman Baye Ndongo and Tyzhaun Claude both in foul trouble and both eventually fouling out. Ndongo fouled in just 15 minutes of action. He finished 1-6 shooting with two points and eight rebounds.

Claude had five points on 1-5 shooting but added six offensive rebounds and nine total boards.

However, there wasn’t much help around Kelly. Senior guard Carter Murphy was the second-leading scorer with eight points in a season-high 21 minutes. Murphy filled in for reserve guard Deebo Coleman who was out with a concussion.

Freshman guard Naithan George had a very rough night recording zero assists in 25 minutes with three turnovers and 1-6 shooting and 0-1 at the line with an airball. Tech’s four starters other than Kelly, George, Kowacie Reeves, Tafara Gapare and Ndongo combined to shoot 2-24 from the field with five points.

"I thought everyone gave effort but I don't think we always played smart. Sometimes it is like that. To me, I don't care about points, but we got out-toughed. When the game was on, (Kaleb) Glenn took the ball from one of my players and he was tapping the ball in. You have to pay attention to detail and pay attention to the scouting report," Stoudamire. "It doesn't matter if we play Duke, Louisville or UMass-Lowell, our margin of error is the same. You've got to buy in and you can't waver on it. We are not good enough, we have to be good as a unit, we are not good enough as individuals. At times we start wavering when teams make runs and our recovery isn't good enough."

The first half was all about Miles Kelly who scored 21 points on essentially 11 shots after throwing up a prayer at the end of the half for his 12th shot. Tech outrebounded Louisville 21-18 and outshot them from 3, 7-16 to 1-10. The points in the paint were how the Cards stayed in the game outscoring Tech inside 12-2 in the first half.

Georgia Tech returns to action Wednesday night at Notre Dame.

Tech missed the first four shots of the game and committed two unforced turnovers to trail 4-2 at the first media timeout to an equally poor shooting Louisville squad. Things didn’t improve much over the next four minutes but Tech took a 9-7 lead thanks to Miles Kelly and Kyle Sturdivant hitting shots. The Cards opened up a six-point lead behind a 10-0 run, but Miles Kelly hit a pair of threes to make it a two-point Cards lead at the third media timeout with 6:30 remaining. Kelly remained hot for the Jackets throughout the first half ending with 21 points as the Jackets led 32-30 at the break.

Both teams started the second half slowly and the game was tied at 35 at the first media timeout, but Baye Ndongo for Tech picked up his third foul to trigger the timeout with 16:00 remaining. Ndongo then committed his fourth foul with 15:37 left in the half. Tech trailed by three, but hit three-straight shots to regain a 45-43 lead with 12:42 left in the game. Tech held a four-point lead going into the second media timeout 47-43 with 11:49 remaining. Tyzhaun Claude picked up his third and fourth foul over the next minute of game action. Louisville used a 7-0 run capped by a Mike James three to cut the Tech lead to two, 60-58 leading to a Stoudamire timeout with 6:34 remaining. Ndongo fouled out with 4:25 remaining in the game. Louisville tied the game with the free throws and took a two-point lead on a dunk by Kaleb Glenn with 3:45 remaining to cap a 13-2 run. George airballed the free throw and then the Cards added a three and a layup to go up 69-62 with 2:23 remaining extending the run to 18-2. The Jackets were unable to claw back into it.