Dominant Second Half Pushes Georgia Tech Past Georgia Southern, Gives Stoudamire First Win

Georgia Tech is back in action this Thursday at home against Howard

Georgia Tech officially began a new era of basketball tonight. 

Damon Stoudamire began his tenure in Atlanta tonight with an in-state matchup with Georgia Southern and the Yellow Jackets were looking to get their new head coach a win in his first game. 

Georgia Tech went with Miles Kelly, Kowacie Reeves, Amaree Abram, Tafara Gapare, and Tyzhaun Claude in the starting lineup tonight against the Eagles. 

A new era of Georgia Tech basketball begins tonight pic.twitter.com/xf63J10GkK

— jackson caudell (@jacksoncaudell) November 6, 2023

1st Half

It was a slow start on offense for the Yellow Jackets to say the least. 

In the first four minutes, Georgia Southern got out to a 7-2 lead and Kelly was off to a slow start. He was 1-5 from the field in the first few minutes of the game and missed some second-chance opportunities at the basket. He is perhaps the most talented offensive player on Georgia Tech but it was a rough start and rough first half for Kelly. 

With the lead being 8-2 in favor of Georgia Southern and the Yellow Jackets off to a bad start on the offensive end, Deebo Coleman and Ebenezer Dowuona checked into the game as the first subs and it did not take long for Coleman to hit a three to make it 8-5. 

Both teams went back and forth, but Georgia Tech finally got the lead when Abram hit a three to make it 12-10. 

It started to look like the Yellow Jackets might be pulling away near the end of the first half. After a timeout with 4:25 to go in the half, Georgia TEch had a 7-0 run to make it 28-22 and they finally looked like they had found a rhythm on offense. Unfortunately, the Eagles finished the half on a run to trail by only one at the half 32-31. 

It was an ugly shooting half for both teams and there was not much of a flow to the game. The Yellow Jackets shot 32.3% from the field and 26.73% from three. Claude led the way for GT with seven points and five rebounds, while Kelly had a 2-8 half from the floor with six points. 

Georgia Southern shot 33.3% from the field and from three. They had 20 bench points in the first half,

2nd Half

Miles Kelly finished with 25 points for Georgia Tech against Georgia Southern  / Georgia Tech Athletics

Things changed in the second half though and that is where Georgia Tech really pulled away. The three-point shot started falling and the offense looked more crisp, mostly due to not turning the ball over like they did to start the game. 

This game would not be close in the second half. 

For all of the struggles that Kelly had in the first half, he had a tremendous second half. Kelly scored 19 points in the second half, the Yellow Jackets shot 64.3% from three-point range in the second half and they outscored Georgia Southern 52-31 in the second half to get the win in Stoudamire's first game as the head coach. 

Reeves finished with 15, Deebo Coleman had 13 in the second half to finish with 17 for the game, and Claude had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. The offense finished scoring 1.2 points per possession. For the game, Georgia Tech shot 45.0% from the field and 44.8 from three-point range. 

This was a great second half for the Yellow Jackets offense. After looking out of sorts and not being able to get anything going consistently, the Yellow Jackets shot with confidence and blew past Georgia Southern in the second half to have a convincing win in the opener. 

Next up for Georgia Tech will be another home non-conference game. The Yellow Jackets will play Howard and tip-off is set for 7:30. 

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