Yellow Jackets Blown Out By #4 Virginia

After the first half I was feeling pretty good.  The Yellow Jackets were down just two, had played pretty good defense and had gotten some good looks at the basket.  Early in the second half all of those good feelings evaporated as Marcus Georges-Hunt fell hard to the ground and did not get up.  When Marcus went down, GT was down just a couple of points.  With him out, the difference widened drastically.  When Marcus got back just a couple minutes later, the Jackets were down 12 and Virginia was dominating.  An injured Marcus was not enough to turn around the momentum.  The offense sputtered, but turned around a little at the end, but the defense fell apart and was unable to stop the Cavaliers.

This was not a good game offensively for the Jackets.  MGH went just 1-8 for 7 points.  With Marcus taken out of the game, the onus fell on Adam Smith who responded decently with 6-14 for 16 points.  Unfortunately, the other regulars did not help out.  Nick Jacobs and Charles Mitchell combined for just 8 points on 4-11 shooting.  With only one of the four top scorers performing, Tech needed role players to step up and they did not.  Tadric Jackson had a strong game with 11 points on 4-4 shooting, but he still had a couple turnovers.  Other than Tadric, nobody else stepped up.  This team struggled offensively all game and just did not have the firepower to keep up.  They only got 9 offensive rebounds a night after grabbing 19.

ACC player of the year Malcolm Brogdon showed why he won the award tonight.  He scored 26 points on an incredible 10-15 shooting.  He just could not miss.  Anthony Gill helped out with 12 points on 5-9 shooting.  Much maligned backup center Mike Tobey hit several deep twos on the way to 9 points.  London Perrantes added 8 on 3-8 from the field.  Virginia played this game extremely well.  They hit 6-13 threes, including a couple of really difficult shots.  They kept Georgia Tech in check on the offensive boards and turned them over 14 times, which is a recipe for success against the Jackets.

Now Georgia Tech just has to wait for a couple of days while the rest of the tournaments play out and the committees deliberate.  The Jackets have no chance at the NCAA tournament, but should get into the NIT, and hopefully ends up with a home game.  This game was very disappointing, but playing a back to back against the #4 team that might as well have been playing at home was always going to be a difficult task.  hopefully they get a good draw in the NIT.