Georgia Tech Basketball Holds on Against Tulane

Georgia Tech was in control of this game the entire second half, but could not pull away until the final two minutes.  Poor defense and missed shots let Tulane stay close, but some clutch plays at the end clinched the game for the Jackets.

Georgia Tech was led by the usual suspects; Marcus Georges-Hunt led with 19 points while Charles Mitchell had 14 points and 14 rebounds for his 8th consecutive double-double this season.  Nick Jacobs and Adam Smith also had strong performances with 13 points and 9 rebounds for Jacobs and 13 points for Smith.  Quinton Stephens had 8 points off the bench, but fouled out with about 3 and a half minutes left.

For Tulane, it was the guards Louis Dabney and Malik Morgan who led the way with 15 and 14 points respectively, and the big man Daniel Osetkowski ended with 11 boards.

Once again the Jackets struggled out of the gate, allowing the Green Wave to get out to a small early lead, but the Jackets soon turned it around and got an 8 point lead with 7 minutes left in the half.  The Jackets would go cold and let Tulane cut it to a one point lead for the Jackets at half time.  The Jackets started strong in the second half and got up to a 9 point lead.  They could not put the Green Wave away though as Tulane hovered around 5 points back until the very end.  With three minutes left the Green Wave had the lead down to just 3, but a big layup by Georges-Hunt and a jumper by Mitchell Gave the Jackets a comfortable 7 point lead with 1 minute remaining.  Georgia Tech made their free throws to hang on for the win.

This game went about as expected in many respects.  Georgia Tech was strong on the boards with 15 offensive rebounds, both teams were led by their best scorers, and both teams shot about average from three.  This game was called very tight, mostly in the second half, by the referees leading to several Georgia Tech players getting into foul trouble.  Georges-Hunt and Mitchell ended with 4 fouls while Stephens ended up fouling out.  Tulane spread their fouls out so no player was in serious foul trouble, but both teams spent large portions of the second half in the bonus and some time in the double bonus.

The real key to this game was turnovers. Tulane ended up with 16 turnovers, many of which were caused by players not realizing that a pass was coming.  Many of these boneheaded errors kept Tulane from coming back and squandered momentum.

This was not the prettiest of wins for Georgia Tech, but it was a true road win on the weekend before finals.  Next Georgia Tech gets the week off before hosting a strong VCU team on Tuesday, December 15.