CHAPEL HILL, NC- Georgia Tech pulled off a near upset of #20 North Carolina on Saturday falling 68-65 despite playing without senior starters Javian McCollum and Kowacie Reeves for the second game in a row. It was the second loss in a row for the Jackets and Tech fell to 4-5 on the season and starts ACC play 0-1. The Heels after a rough start picked up their first ACC win and moved to 5-4 after starting the season at #9.

“It was good to see my team coming in here and fight and we’ve been fighting. We’ve been pretty good defensively the last 3-4 games and tonight we did a good job against arguably one of the best groups of guards in the country and I’m proud of our guys for that,” Stoudamire said.

Without McCollum’s offense, Lance Terry picked up the slack for the Jackets but he was inefficient offensively leading all scorers with 22 points, but he needed 19 shots to get there and 7-8 from the line. Terry did not hit a two-point field goal in the game and was 0-6 inside the arc with three missed dunks.

“Being older I have to be a better driver and a better leader and that’s not even talking, that’s how I play,” Terry said. “I think there were a couple of times I took some bad shots on my part that led to North Carolina running out. As a leader, I have to know when it is the right shot to take.”

Terry played 38 minutes and fellow guard Nait George played 39 minutes in the loss with the Jackets short on guards going into the UNC game.

“I feel good,” Terry said after the game. “There were definitely a couple of stretches every now and then but you know I think for the most part we are both feeling pretty good.”

After a down game against Oklahoma, Tech big man Baye Ndongo scored 19 points and added 12 rebounds in 35 minutes of action. He did struggle at the line shooting just 5-10.

“Obviously what happened at Oklahoma I shouldn’t have let happen,” Ndongo told JOL. “(The staff) got me right and I have to get my mental (part) right and I need to play better to help my teammates and that is why I am here.”

Ndongo said the early season struggles against good teams should help the Jackets down the road as they get into ACC play.

“Obviously we got some good players, but like everybody says we don’t fight so playing these teams shows us what we have to do and the detail of it,” Ndongo said.

Jackets’ point guard Nait George also struggled scoring 12 points on 14 shot attempts with eight rebounds, but only three assists and five turnovers.

The Jackets turned the ball over 14 times turning into 34 Carolina fastbreak points. The Heels were worse with 18 turnovers, but Tech only turned that into 22 points.

Georgia Tech shot just 31.3 percent from the field and 8-27 from three including just 4-16 in the second half. UNC shot 39 percent but also struggled from three going 5-24. Carolina outrebounded the Jackets 48-37 despite Tech having an early +6 margin on the glass.

Seth Trimble added 19 points for the Heels including 8-9 from the line and 5-6 shooting. RJ Davis had a rough game like Terry with 16 points on 5-15 shooting and 2-8 from three. Ian Jackson added 15 points off the bench but was 5-14 shooting and 1-4 from three.

Tech jumped out to an early lead going up eight and clawed back after a 13-0 run by the Heels to pull within one at the break 31-30 led by nine first-half points by Baye Ndongo and seven rebounds. The Jackets only shot 34.3 percent from the floor, but were 4-11 from three and had 20 first-half rebounds. Seth Trimble led the Heels in the first half with 10 points and RJ Davis added eight points.

Georgia Tech led 14-8 at the second media timeout thanks to some sharp three-point shooting and work on the offensive glass with 11:16 left in the first half. The Tar Heels used an 8-0 run to tie the game at 16 forcing Stoudamire to use his first timeout with 7:52 left in the half. Terry answered a 13-0 run that ended the lead to 21-16 with a three to make it 21-19. Tech closed out the half with a Nait George jumper in the lane to cut the Heels lead to one 31-30 at the break.

Tech started the half cold going 0-5 in the first four minutes of the half but Carolina was equally bad with just two layups going up 36-31 forcing a Stoudamire timeout. Tech used a 6-0 run to retake the lead briefly 39-38 before a turnover gave the Heels a dunk to go back up 40-39 at the under-12 timeout. Terry tied the game again with a three from the corner at 42. Jaeden Mustaf picked up his fourth foul with 5:49 left in the game. UNC clawed ahead 59-55 with 4:34 left in the game as Tech had another offensive outage just using free throws for the offense with a 5:20 field goal-less stretch. Tech broke the streak with a Ndongo dunk to make it 59-57 UNC with just over three minutes left in the game. Terry picked up his fourth foul on the other end but the Heels missed the front end of the one-and-one. The Heels stretched it out to 63-57 with 1:11 left on a pair of free throws by Ian Jackson. Ndongo hit a basket and Mustaf added a pair of free throws to make it a one-basket game 64-61. After Tech’s trap failed O’Brien fouled Trimble with 18.1 left. Trimble hit both and then UNC fouled Terry on the other end fouling out Ven-Allen Lubin. Terry added two more free throws to make it 66-63, but the Jackets trap failed and Ian Jackson added two more free throws to make it 68-63 with 6.4 left. George hit a layup at the buzzer to make the final score 68-65.

Georgia Tech has eight days off before playing Northwestern in Milwaukee on December 15th at 4:11 pm ET.