Tech pull away 84-62 over Ga Southern to win Stoudamire's debut as coach

ATLANTA- Georgia Tech men’s basketball behind a strong second half knocked off Georgia Southern 84-62 to give Damon Stoudamire a win in his debut as the Jackets’ head coach.

It was a one-point game at the half before the Jackets pulled away in the second half with a furious run of buckets including multiple threes. Stoudamire said the late second-half performance is how he expects his team to play the other 30 minutes of the game.

“It was great to see us come out in the second half and play the way we did. I was really disappointed with our offense in the first half. This is the first group of guys I’ve been around where the offense has been ahead of the defense and you wouldn’t have thought that. I emphasized having great ball movement. When we don’t share the ball we are not a good team. We are not a great one-on-one team and you have to create advantages and once you create them you hit them.

Miles Kelly scored 19 points in the second half on 7-10 shooting and 4-6 from the three in the second half to help the Jackets pull away with nine minutes left in the game. The Jackets hit 9 of 14 from three with eight steals.

Big man Tyzhaun Claude who missed the exhibition against Clark Atlanta last week put up a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds including five offensive boards. He added two steals and three assists from the post position.

"Ty to his credit, he has been back three or four days and just got his cast off and he made great passes and he is a great out-of-area rebounder and we made shots off his passes," Stoudamire said.

Claude said that Stoudamire and the staff did a good job when the Jackets started out slow taking over two minutes to even score a bucket.

“There were adjustments that needed to be made, our coaches did a good job of getting us ready and they had some film at the first media timeout and we made some adjustments and were ready to go,” Claude said.

The second-half offensive run often began in the half court with a pass inside to Claude who kicked the ball to a corner and set up shots. Sturdivant said that Claude's passes inside out helped get the offense going.

“Ty did a great job getting the pass out of there and he may not get the assist but he got the hockey assist,” Sturdivant said.

The old-school style of Claude has made fans of his teammates and coaches quickly.

“Ty is a lunchpail guy and I appreciate guys like that and played with a lot of them. He is really athletic and he gives it his all. He will raise his hand to come out. It is an old-school mentality and the guys appreciate it,” Stoudamire said. “He had been out a month to play the minutes he did was a testament to what he was doing with his conditioning when he wasn’t on the floor with us.”

Deebo Coleman added 17 points off the bench on 5-7 shooting. Stoudamire praised Coleman's embracement of his new role as a sixth man for the Jackets after being a multi-year starter under previous coach Josh Pastner.

"I want to give a shout-out to Deebo Coleman. He made shots. It can’t be easy for Deebo, to be viewed one way and now he is coming off the bench. You can view him as a sixth starter. I thought he did a really good job," Stoudamire said.

Kowacie Reeves added 15 points.

Kyle Sturdivant scored eight points with four rebounds and six assists off the bench helping guide the offense in the second half run by the Jackets.

"Kyle came in and picked us up and got the ball moving. Miles is Miles, the biggest thing is he makes the easy play the game gets easy for him. The problem is you can make home runs every play, you have to play the game. People want to see consistency and he got off the ball and started making shots,” Stoudamire said of his veteran guards.

The Jackets were 13 of 29 from three (44.8%) with fewer attempts than either the exhibition or secret scrimmage from outside the arc. The Eagles coach was impressed with the NBA system Stoudamire and his staff installed and are running.

“It was a challenge and Coach Stoudamire is a terrific coach and they’ve added some pieces and they are integrating their new guys with their returners. Seeing their boxes they’ve been leaning more toward what he did in the NBA and that is more true. There are some consistencies with Pacific but they were five out like we are and they present a lot of challenges with the personnel they have,” Henry said of Tech.

Jamar Franklin led the Eagles with 17 points off the bench. Starting Georgia Southern guard Derrick Harris Jr. only played five minutes in the game.

Tech outrebounded Georgia Southern 37-33 including 15 offensive rebounds, but the Jackets gave up 11 offensive rebounds as well.

Southern ended up with 18 turnovers and struggled to defend the Jackets, especially in transition.

"We created our offense through our defense and that is when we are best. We are one of the best teams when we convert, get stops, rebound, and run,” Sturdivant said of the second-half run.

The Jackets had 19 points off the 18 turnovers forced and 10 fastbreak points as well.

“For us, it was pretty sloppy offensively the whole game. Defensively we gave ourselves a chance and in the second half, they hit the pocket against our blitz and got the ball sprayed around. We wanted toughness for 40 minutes and discipline for 40 minutes. We can’t lose the discipline game and picking up technical fouls and we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit,” Georgia Southern coach Charlie Henry said.

Henry was coaching his first game as a college head coach after taking over in Statesboro following a successful run as an assistant at Alabama and many years in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls organization.

Miles Kelly scored the first basket of the Damon Stoudamire era on a second-chance bucket off his own miss. Tech trailed for much of the first half and struggled to crawl ahead by six with 3:21 left in the half. The Eagles evened things out cutting the lead to one, 32-31 at the break.

Gapare injured himself with an awkward landing on a drive to the hoop early in the second half. Cam Bryant was called for a technical foul with 14:40 left and Abram hit a pair free throws to make it 44-42 Georgia Tech. Coleman sank three free throws after being fouled shooting a three to put Tech up 47-44. A pair of threes by Sturdivant and Coleman put the Jackets up 58-50 with under nine minutes to go. Miles Kelly out of a timeout on a set play hit a corner three with the shot clock down to two to put the Jackets up nine, 61-52 with under eight minutes to go. A Reeves steal and dish to Coleman led to a layup to put Tech up 73-59 with under four minutes to go.

In the first half, transfer big man Tyzhaun Claude made an impact in his debut with seven points, five rebounds and two assists. The Jackets and Eagles both shot just 33% from the field, but the biggest difference was free throw shooting where the Jackets missing eight of 15 free throw attempts while Georgia Southern hit seven of nine. Tech also had nine turnovers while the Eagles committed just six. Tafara Gapare blocked two shots in the first half.

“I had those pre-game nerves and wanted to do everything right. Coach Dame is not a rah-rah coach, when the game started. Once I saw him have confidence in me and that happened with our team the more we settled into the game and then we blew it wide open,” Claude said.

Ebenezer Dowuona and Kyle Sturdivant were the first two subs for Tech.

Tech opened up 1-8 from the floor through the first media timeout and dug a 7-2 hole missing two free throws along the way. Coleman snapped a five-minute scoreless stretch with a corner three to make it 8-5 Southern. A three by Amare Abram gave Tech the first lead of the game 12-10 and then Sturdivant hit another to go up 15-10, but a bucket by Southern and a four-point play on a three and foul by Ibrahima Sacko gave the Eagles the 16-15 lead again. Gapare had a steal and then went coast-to-coast to put Tech up 17-16 ahead of the third media timeout. Tyren Moore and Miles Kelly both received technical fouls with 5:49 left during a dead ball situation ahead of a pair of free throws by Reeves that put Tech up 21-20. A corner three by Reeves off a Kelly dish and a steal and dish to Kelly for a layup put Tech up 26-22 leading to a Eagles timeout with 4:25 left in the half. Tech held on to a slim lead 32-31 at the half.

“It was the first game with the lights on and we were tentative and that is not how we played in the secret scrimmage or the exhibition, but the defense was A-plus and we did a great job shrinking the floor and closing gaps. Once we started to pass the ball and get open shots we made them and that is when the game changed,” Stoudamire said.

The Jackets won the game against Georgia Southern without two key rotation pieces, guard Lance Terry and big man Baye Ndongo. Stoudamire updated both players' statuses after the game.

“Lance may be after Thanksgiving. With Baye I’m hoping before Cincinnati, another week or a week and a half. I’m looking forward to getting both of those guys back. We have a really good team without a lot of separation and adding those two will make us a deeper team and put the onus on me,” Stoudamire said.

Gapare reinjured himself during the first half of the game after getting banged up in the exhibition last week but he was cleared to return to the game and played just three minutes in the second half.

The Jackets host Howard on Thursday night with a 7:30 pm tipoff time aiming to go 2-0 in nonconference play to open the season.