Virginia Pulls Away From Georgia Tech in the Second Half and Wins 75-66
Coming off of their big win against Clemson, Georgia Tech was looking to put together back-to-back wins and finally break its losing streak to Virginia. The Cavaliers came into this game as winners of 10 straight against Georgia Tech.
UVA came into this game not playing very well after starting the year off in the top 25. They had dropped four of six games before downing Virginia Tech, 65-57, at home Wednesday night. The Cavaliers had lost all four of their road games this season, including their last three ACC road trips to Notre Dame, NC State, and Wake Forest. It was going to be interesting to see if they could come in and handle a team that had a lot of confidence after beating Clemson this week.
After a great start, Georgia Tech's offense slowed to a halt and Virginia's three-point shooting was enough to give them a win on the road vs a confident Yellow Jackets team.
Let's recap the game.
Damon Stoudamire stuck with his usual lineup tonight, starting Nait George, Miles Kelly, Kowacie Reeves, Baye Ndongo, and Ebenezer Dowuona.
It was a very good start for Georgia Tech in this game.
They jumped out to an 11-7 lead and looked good on offense. Virginia is known to be a good defensive team and plays at a slower pace, but the Yellow Jackets offense was doing just fine. An 8-0 run pushed the lead to 22-11 and it looked like Georiga Tech was going to start pulling away.
At the next timeout with 5:59 left, UVA was starting to make a run. They scored seven straight points to answer the Yellow Jackets and it was clear that they were not going to go away.
The end of the first half was as close to a disaster as you could imagine for the Yellow Jackets. Their offense slowed to a halt and the defense was giving Virginia too many good looks. Over the last four minutes of the first half, Virginia went on a 12-0 run and Georgia Tech did not score in the final 3:45 of the first half. UVA went into halftime with all of the momentum and that would carry over into the second half.
Georgia Tech shot 44% from the field and 42% from three in the first half. UVA shot 50% from the field and 56% from three.
Georgia Tech Forward Tafara Gapare
The second-half momentum carried over for the Cavaliers and Georgia Tech never really threatened to come back. The three-point shooting went cold and the defense could not force any empty possessions and mistakes from Virginia.
UVA hit three straight shots coming out of the half to push the lead to 11 and that is where it would stay for most of the half. With under four minutes to lay, UVA led by 11 and it was clear that Georgia Tech was not going to have enough to win the game. The Cavaliers won the game 75-66 and sent Georgia Tech to a 9-9 record.
For the game, Georgia Tech shot 45% from the floor and 33% from three. Virginia shot 50% from the floor and 48% from three. Freshmen Nait George and Baye Ndongo had 15 points each.
This was a disappointing result given that the Yellow Jackets were coming off a big win and had a chance to beat what is not a strong Virginia team. Stoudamire's team is going to have its ups and downs this year with so many young faces and this is just one of those rough games.
Georgia Tech will host Pitt on Tuesday at 7:00 pm.
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