Tech went up big on a three-point barrage and down the Cards 83-67

ATLANTA- Georgia Tech avenged a close loss at Louisville with a convincing 83-67 win over the Cardinals to close out the 2022-23 home schedule on Senior Night. Senior Ja’von Franklin in his final game at McCamish Pavilion had a banner night with 21 points and 13 rebounds to lead the way for the Jackets. Tech improved to 4-14 in ACC play and 12-17 overall while Louisville dropped to 4-25 on the season and 2-16 in ACC play.

“I wanted to go out with a win and I wanted it for my teammates in my last game here. The job isn’t finished and we have two games left and we want to go into the ACC Tournament with confidence in Greensboro,” Franklin said.

Josh Pastner improved to 7-0 in home finales at Georgia Tech and the Jackets have won eight straight Senior Day games.

“It was a great win for us. I’m so darn proud of our young men. We beat Miami on January 4th a top-15 win and I thought we were about to takeoff and we were a month late. There was a lot of negativity about how we were playing. I’m very proud of our guys, you have two directions on the ropes, you are in the fetal position or you are going to kick, claw, eye-gouge, or punch to get off the ropes. We don’t have any margin for error and we’ve finished our last four home games with wins and we had a chance to win our last couple of road games and it is a testament to our young men and our coaches,” Pastner said.

Pastner said he was impressed with seeing how Louisville has improved this year under Kenny Payne after a dreadful start in non-conference and then ACC play.

"Louisville has gotten better and credit to coach Kenny Payne and he is a dear friend, they have some good players and they’ve improved. I want to give credit to them and coach Payne. He is a great basketball coach and a great human being,” Pastner said.

Payne was impressed with Georgia Tech.

“All the credit goes to Georgia Tech and the way they started the game in the first half and put us on our heels. They scored 45 points in the first half and they took it to us. They finished the game with 12 threes and 40 points in the paint and that means there was no resistance on the court. They played the way they needed to win the game on senior night,” Payne said.

Miles Kelly got the ball rolling early with a trio of first-half threes, he ended the night with 19 points and hit five of his ten three-point attempts.

Lance Terry scored 17 points with three assists and two steals. He has played 40 minutes in all of Georgia Tech’s ACC wins and averaged 18.5 points per game in those games.

Kyle Sturdivant had the first double-double with points and assists since Josh Heath in 2017 against NC State. Sturdivant had 11 points and 10 assists as well as two steals and was 5-5 from the free throw line.

“Kyle is our team captain and he played like it,” Pastner said. “He had a 5-1 assist-to-turnover ratio and he hit a big and-one for us.”

Deebo Coleman added nine points on 3-5 from the arc.

Tech shot 48.2 percent for the game overall and hit 12-29 from three and 17-22 from the line. Louisville shot only 44.3 percent and 4-17 from the arc in the loss.

Louisville managed to cut the Tech lead to five in the second half, but Sturdivant hit an and-one and Jalon Moore put back an offensive board to help Tech start to pull away again. Sturdivant said he was determined to get his team the key bucket to end Louisville's run.

“I don’t remember if the play was for me and I knew we needed to get a bucket and I just wanted to post up but the defender had me boxed in so I just went up with it and it went in,” Sturdivant said of his key buckets late.

Payne said he thinks Georgia Tech actually has the better roster of the two teams.

“I think there is a focus and discipline you have to have when you dig yourself a hole, you can’t just make a run and you have to take the lead. You can’t just get on the cusp and we had a mistake and a bad call and then they make a basket and they killed our run,” Payne said. “We know we are not more talented than Georgia Tech, the only way we win is to get after them.”

Coleman Boyd came off the bench in the final moments of the game and had a dish to Franklin to cap the game for the Jackets between the two Senior Night Honorees.

Georgia Tech finished the first half with a 13-point lead thanks to sharp shooting hitting eight of 16 from three and 53 percent overall from the field behind Lance Terry’s 10 points and nine-point halves by Ja’von Franklin and Miles Kelly. The Cards hit just 2-10 from three and turned the ball over nine times in the first half leading to 11 points off turnovers for the Jackets. Tech players committed four turnovers yielding just four points. Kamari Lands led the Cards with nine points in the first half on 4-5 shooting. It was the largest halftime lead of the season for the Jackets in ACC play three more than in the Virginia Tech win earlier in February.

“We shot 50 percent from three in the first half and the way we are playing with ball movement and Kyle had 10 assists and should’ve had 15 with some great looks he found and we had 3-4 in a row that were good looks we missed too,” Pastner said. “I think we are playing as well as anyone in the league right now, we had 83 today.”

Three players led Louisville offensively with El Ellis and Kamari Lands each adding 15 points and Mike James adding 14 points for the Jackets. Tech turned Louisville over 14 times in the game with 18 points off turnovers. Tech had 10 turnovers with six coming in the second half allowing nine points in the second half off turnovers.

“We held El Ellis to 15 points on 16 shots and we defended really well and made plays when we needed to make plays," Pastner said.

Saturday marked the eighth straight Senior Day win for the Yellow Jackets program. Tech also honored four senior managers before the game.

“I want to give a shoutout to our managers. We had four graduates (honored) today and they do an excellent job and they are students. We are on the only program in America where guys don’t want to be coaches,” Pastner said. “Our managers are incredible people and they embody what Georgia Tech is about and the challenge of the rigorous curriculum.”

Georgia Tech hits the road for a trip to Syracuse on Tuesday night and then the regular season finale at Boston College on Saturday afternoon to close out the 2022-23 regular season.

“In 14 years as a coach, we’ve always taken off and then we had a bad month after we beat Miami, we are just a month late. We’ve improved and I think these guys, just because they are playing basketball, we forget they are students at Georgia Tech and that is about toughness and resolve. In late-game situations, we found ways to extend the lead and get some wins,” Pastner said.

Bobby Cremins and several lettermen were honored at halftime of the game as well.

Deebo Coleman stuck his first two three-point attempts of the game to help Tech take a 10-7 lead at the first media timeout with 15:47 left in the half. The Cards went on a 7-0 run to take a 17-14 lead with 11:41 left at the second media timeout. Miles Kelly hit a three and took a charge to give Tech a 25-24 lead over Louisville at the third media timeout with 7:14 remaining in the half. The Jackets went on a 10-0 to extend their lead to eight, 32-24 forcing a timeout by Louisville with 6:07 remaining in the half. Extending the run to 15-2, Tech led by as much as 11 (37-26) before the final media timeout with 3:01 left. Sturdivant put the icing on the impressive half with a hesitation jumper at the buzzer to secure a 13-point lead at the half over the Cards.

Tech jumped on the Cards out of the half with a 7-0 run to go up 18 behind a Kelly three to make it 52-34 forcing another timeout by Payne with 17:44 left. The Cards chipped away at the Tech lead thanks to some defensive miscues and fouls on made baskets to cut it to nine with 11:33 left 57-48 at the second media timeout of the half. Louisville big man Sidney Curry picked up his fourth foul on one end and Miles Kelly picked up his fourth foul on the other side for GT. Tech led by 10 at the third media timeout with 7:50 left 63-53. Tech remained cold as Louisville heated up cutting the lead to single-digits to five, 66-61 with 4:46 left as Pastner burned a timeout. Kyle Sturdivant out of the timeout hit an old-fashioned three-point play with the hoop and harm and Jalon Moore put back a miss to extend the lead back to ten. Payne called a timeout with 2:42 left with the Cards down 73-64 to GT. Lance Terry hit a dagger three with 2:08 left to put the Jackets up 12, 76-64.