Team Effort Takes Tech Over Deacs

Desperate times have fallen on McCamish Pavilion.  With only seven available scholarship players, the Jackets have been looking for a way to come together as team and play cohesively throughout ACC play.  They found a way to do just that on Saturday against Wake Forest.  Tech had four players score in double digits, and everyone who played scored (except for Corey Heyward).

This game started out as a potential barn-burner; Tech never held a lead greater than six and trailed twice.  However, Chris Bolden's last second half court heave put the Jackets up by seven going into the locker rooms.  The second half is where Tech really sealed this game.  Georgia Tech had big contributions from Miller and Marcus Georges-Hunt to open the half.  Hunt had a HUGE game, scoring a career-high 23 points.  He and DM5 combined for 23 points in the second half, or 60% of the team's second half offense.  He fouled for the first time this season with a minute to go in the game.  Part of the reason for that may have been the strange lineups Tech's dearth of players caused at times...MGH played several minutes at the 4.  Gregory had to get even more creative when Trae Golden went down with a groin injury with 7:32 remaining in the first half.  It looks minor, and there is no word yet on his return.  However, even without one of their leading scorers, Tech found a way to put it together to maintain a lead throughout most of the second half.  The real exclamation point was when, on an in-bounds play, Kammeon Holsey found Daniel rushing through the back lane.  He made a perfect feed, and Dan put up a big slam to give Tech a 10-point lead they would not relinquish.

Overall I was impressed how such a cobbled-together team could find a way to take down an ACC opponent on the road.  It may not have been the best of opponents, but they needed this victory going into Clemson and a long road trip.  Hopefully Trae has time to recover and Tech can get, ya know, an actual number of players for next Tuesday's game.  As for Wake Forest, they were pretty mad:

Jeff Bzdelik should be fired on that game alone.

— Riley Johnston (@BSD_RaJohnston) February 1, 2014