Tech remains ice cold falls 72-51 at Clemson

CLEMSON, SC- Georgia Tech lost the sixth straight ACC game on Tuesday night at Clemson 72-51. The Jackets dug an early hole 14-2 and spent much of the first half trying to dig out of that with stone-cold shooting from the guards.

The Jackets fell to 1-9 in ACC play for head coach Josh Pastner marking the worst start for the program since the 2014-15 season under Brian Gregory and closing in on the 2008-09 season when the Jackets started the year 1-13 under Paul Hewitt. Both Gregory and Hewitt rebounded from terrible seasons to make it to the postseason the following year.

“The difference tonight is they were 9 for 20 from three and we were 4 for 21 from three,” Pastner said. “I’m proud of our guys, they fought hard and came back from being down 12-0, but we just can’t score and that has been who we are in ACC play.”

Aside from Deivon Smith in the first half, Tech’s guards had a terrible night shooting. At one point the Jackets missed 13 straight threes from the final 50 seconds of the first half until the 2:13 mark of the second half when Deebo Coleman finally hit his first of the game after starting 0-5.

“About 17 of the 21 threes were wide-open shots and we just missed most of them,” Pastner said. “As a coach what are you going to do? You can’t tell them not to shoot it when they are open. Out of the 13 we missed in a row, 10 or 11 were good shots. I thought at times I could tell as the ball was releasing that it wasn’t going to go in.”

Tech’s guards Smith, Coleman, Miles Kelly and Kyle Sturdivant combined for 14 for 48 shooting and 3 for 21 from three. Smith said the shooting woes are snowballing on the guards right now from three.

“I think it is pretty difficult right now because those are the points we need to stay in the game and stay competitive with teams. I think every guy we have is a shooter, Deebo, Miles, Lance, Kyle or myself,” Smith said. “I think we are all good shooters, but like coach says I think we’ve just got to find it and keep working.”

Ja’von Franklin led Tech with 12 points and five rebounds. Smith had 11 points but he was 0-4 with 0 points in the second half. He did have a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds with four assists.

PJ Hall led all scorers with 17 points and seven rebounds. Brevin Galloway scored 14 points but only two points in the second half. Hunter Tyson had 12 points, eight rebounds, and a steal.

Galloway enjoyed the cold shooting from the Jackets.

“Missing 13 in a row is hell and seeing miss after a miss is beautiful for us,” Galloway said. “I’m also a big fan of the zone and I love it when teams zone us and I know it is going to be ugly for them.”

Clemson hit 9-20 from three and 27-51 shooting overall in the game and 9-11 from the line.

Tech fell behind early 14-2 before storming back into the game thanks to Deivon Smith’s 11 first-half points and six rebounds. Brevin Galloway led the way for Clemson with 12 points in the first half hitting three of his five threes. PJ Hall was held to just seven points on 2-6 shooting in the first half after destroying the Jackets in Atlanta earlier this season.

“I tried to make winning plays out there all the time whether it is rebounding or scoring, I like getting everybody involved too,” Smith said.

Guards Lance Terry (hamstring) and Tristan Maxwell (hip pointer) did not make the trip to Clemson and both missed their second straight game further weakening the guard rotation and thinning out the perimeter shooting.

The Jackets face Duke on Saturday ending a run of games against the top half of the ACC to open ACC play.

Clemson opened the game hitting a trio of three-pointers and getting a three and a foul on the last one to open up a 10-0 before they missed a shot in the first 87 seconds of the game. Clemson got it up to 12-0 before Deivon Smith broke the seal. Tech trailed 14-2 at the first media timeout. Tech cut it to 21-9 at the second media timeout thanks to threes by Smith and Miles Kelly. The Jackets pulled within six during the next stretch, but trailed 25-17 with 7:42 left at the third media timeout. Franklin cut it to five on a lob from Sturdivant with 6:36 left. Smith made it a three-point game with a stepback jumper, but Wiggins hit a three to extend the lead back to six 28-22. Clemson hit another three and a short jumper to make it 33-22 with 4:03 left.

Tech started the second half slow allowing Clemson to build the lead back up to 11 and trailed 42-30 with 17:23 left as Rodney Howard picked up his third foul. Clemson extended the lead to 13 leading to Pastner timeout with 14:42 left in the game with his team down 45-32. Clemson stretched the lead out to 19 with 6:13 left 63-44 as Tech went cold hitting on just one of their seven shots during that stretch. Deebo Coleman snapped an 0-13 three-point shooting slump with 2:13 remaining to make it 67-51 Clemson.