Georgia Tech Basketball: Jackets Fall to Ohio 67-61 for First Loss of the Season

I want to preface this by saying Ohio is a talented team and was actually favored by 3.5 points tonight. The Bobcats, who won 23 games last season, returned four starters including preseason first team All-MAC players Antonio Campbell and Jaaron Simmons. The Jackets had no answer for Campbell tonight who finished with 25 points and 12 rebounds. Simmons added 17 himself, but the x-factor may have been Kenny Kaminski who scored 15 points, all on the three ball and all in the second half.

Despite Georgia Tech leading for most of the game, Ohio went on a run late in the game and the Jackets were never able to take the lead back. A little 4-0 run to make it a one posession game inside three minutes brought McCamish Pavilion to life, but the Bobcats countered with a 6-1 run to end the game.

Ben Lammers had another big night, pouring in a career high 22 points and playing almost the entire game for the Jackets (38 minutes). Defensively, he was tasked with defending Campbell, but still ended up with four blocks.

After two brilliant performances, freshman Josh Okogie had a rough night, finishing with just five points on 2-13 shooting. The only player who may have had a worse night was senior Quinton Stephens who went just 1-9. When those two players combine to go 3-22, the Jackets will struggle to beat anybody.

The Bobcats were able to win despite getting ZERO points from their bench. The Jackets had 19 bench points, but 17 of those came from Tadric Jackson, who was the second leading scorer for Georgia Tech. Jackson built upon his career high scoring effort against Southern with another great performance and already looks like a different player than he has the last two seasons. As evidenced by his 3-4 mark from behind the arc, his work with assistant coach Darryl Labarrie to improve his shot appears to be paying off. He should begin to take on more minutes as he continues to recover from his hamstring injury and build up his conditioning.

Georgia Tech will try to get back on track Tuesday, when they take on Sam Houston State.