Georgia Tech Falls In Overtime To Boston College 80-72

This was a game that Georgia Tech could have (and possibly should have) won. They led by 13 in the first half, they led by by 4 with under 2 minutes left in the game and Boston College’s best player on the bench, but they were unable to seal the deal.

This game came down to two things. First it was three point shooting. Early in the game, Tech’s frenetic zone was shutting down the Eagle’s offense. Late in the first half BC seemed to figure it out and ended up with a whole lot of wide open threes. Normally to defend against this you would switch to man defense. Tech did switch man and went on a run as soon as they did, but it was too late. They made this switch with around nine minutes left in the game. They should have made it at least 5 minutes earlier. This was a big mistake by Josh Pastner and may have well lost the team this game. Boston College shot 11-23 (47.8%) from three. That’s tough to beat.

The second is the lack of scoring depth on Georgia Tech. Each team’s best scorer fouled out in the final minutes of the game. The difference was that BC still had a creator in point guard Ky Bowman. He dominated in the final minutes of regulation and in overtime. On the other hand, GT had nobody to create once Josh Okogie fouled out. Tadric Jackson played poorly and Jose Alvarado made some poor plays as well. Both of them seemed to be pressing too much.

Jerome Robinson was huge for Boston College scoring 19 points on 6-11 shooting. Early in the game he was the only player who could score for BC. Jordan Chatman hit 5 threes on his way to 19 points as well. Ky Bowman struggled early, but he took over late in the game on his way to 17 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists. Johncarlos Reyes came off the bench and added 10 points on 5-7 shooting, mostly on lightly contested layups.

Tech’s scoring was more balanced. All 6 rotation players had at least 10 points and at most 14 points. Ben Lammers led the way with 14 points and 12 rebounds with 6-10 shooting. Brandon Alston scored 11 points in the first half, but only added 2 more in the second.

This is a disappointing loss for a team that was looking to get back to .500 in ACC play. Now they find themselves at 4-6 with two very difficult games coming up. On Thursday they head to Louisville to face a solid Cardinals team before coming back home next Sunday to take on Duke.