GT settles down in 2nd half, pulls away for win over Southeastern Louisiana

After a rough first half for Georgia Tech, the Jackets regrouped at halftime and used a better offensive and defensive performance to pull away over the final 20 minutes for a 70-60 win over Southeastern Louisiana on Monday night at McCamish Pavilion.

The Jackets (3-0) trailed 31-29 at the half but was better on both ends of the court in the second half to methodically work themselves in front and build a double-digit lead to remain unbeaten on the season.

“We got the win. I think that’s the biggest thing, but no illusions to it we’ve got to get better,” said Georgia Tech head Damon Stoudamire. “We turned the ball over a lot, 13 turnovers in the first half. That’s unacceptable. Southeastern Louisiana, they play hard. They junked the game up, but there’s still things that we work on. We’ve got to get better in that area. Just overall we need our main ball-handlers just to be a little more protective of it and understand the assignment and be able to as we would say ‘drive the speed limit,’ not get sped up and get the ball where we need to.

“We’ve got to think the game as well. In the second half, we did that. We got the shots we wanted. And I always say and I think it’s a balance and the kids are trying to figure this out…it’s very rare and I could probably say this and most of the guys if you asked them would probably say, when is the last time a group of guards had to figure out how to play with really good bigs. I think that’s the adjustment that they’re trying to make, when and when not. You’ve got to understand passing lanes. You’ve got to understand just different things, and I think we’re still in the process of doing that. We’ll figure that out. Most of the time your defense is ahead of your offense, and I still think we played really good defense tonight. Although the game felt funny at times, we got down 10, we came right back with our defense. That’s what ignited us. Happy about the win. Not happy about the performance. We’ve got to get better, and we all know that.”

Mouhamed Sylla finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Jackets and become the first freshman in program history to start his career with three straight double-doubles.

“Mo’s done a really good job, and I think that he’ll only get better,” said Stoudamire. “Mo’s been really good, and like I said he’s every bit as good to me for what we need as any freshman in the country.”

Lamar Washington also had a strong debut as a Jacket as the Pacific transfer scored 13 points and pulled down six rebounds after missing the first two games this season due to injury. Akai Fleming and Kowacie Reeves Jr. each had 12 points to round out Tech’s double-digit scorers.

“I thought (Lamar) was huge,” said Stoudamire. “What I like is his toughness. I thought he brought a lot of toughness. He brought a lot of energy to the game, and we needed that. He was really good I thought on both ends of the floor, and he ignited us coming off the bench. He’s been through a lot. He’s a senior so he’s seen a lot as well so I was happy for him. But he really came in and did good things for us.”

Baye Ndongo had a strong second half to finish with eight points, eight rebounds and five assists, and Jaeden Mustaf scored seven points.

“Now the biggest thing for us as a group is getting Baye back into shape and getting his minutes up a little bit,” said Stoudamire. “He’ll be effective out there as well.”

Southeastern Louisiana (0-3) had three scorers in double figures with Isaiah Gaines leading the way in the losing effort with 12 points to go with six rebounds. Jeremy Elyzee and Jaiden Lawrence each scored 10, and Seth Jones and Jalen Forrest both scored nine.

The Jackets got off to a rough start offensively with 11 turnovers in the first 12 minutes of the game as an energetic Southeastern Louisiana squad build as much as an 11-point lead at one point at 27-26. But Tech took better care of the ball in the final stretch of the first half, finishing on a 12-4 run to cut the deficit to 31-29 as the teams headed to the locker room at the break.

The freshmen Sylla and Fleming were key in keeping the Jackets in the game in the first half with 10 and nine points, respectively over the first 20 minutes of the contest.

It was a back-and-forth battle to start the second half as Tech continued to try to chip away while the Lions seemed to hit a shot to keep the lead multiple times when the Jackets would get it to one possession. Tech finally broke through for the lead on a Lamar Washington lay-up with 13:11 left in the game to take a 45-43 lead, which was the team’s first lead since 10-9 at the 12:55 mark of the first half.

From there the Jackets tightened up on the defensive end even more and started to run cleaner, more efficient offense to steadily pull away, leading by as many as 14 at 67-53 on a 3-pointer by Jaeden Mustaf that followed a 3 by Washington on the previous possession.

The two teams ended up with 20 turnovers apiece while Georgia Tech narrowly won the rebounding battle 39 to 30.

Next up Georgia Tech will head to the school just up the road in Athens (UGA) for a Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate hardwood showdown on Friday with tip set for 9 p.m. at Stegeman Coliseum.

“We’ve got to respond. I think the biggest thing that we haven’t done and what I’m looking forward to seeing is we’ve got to go in and be ready to fight. Period,” said Stoudamire. “(My) first year we come off playing Duke, we beat Duke, go down there (to Georgia) and (lose that game). Then they come here last year and it’s crazy, I think we were winning. We hit a 3 to go up by one with about eight or nine minutes to go in the game, and they kind of just took over the game from there. So we’ve got to go there and be prepared to fight. We’ve got to take the fight to them. That’s what I want to see from our team, and it’s a road test at their spot. It’s a big game. No question about it. It’s a big game.”

The Jackets were without reserve big man Peyton Marshall on Monday night, but Stoudamire said after the game that he should be back for the next game at Georgia after suffering some minor back spasms. Stoudamire described him as “day-to-day.”

Southeastern Louisiana will continue its four-game road swing to open the season with a trip to Mississippi State on Saturday at 3 p.m.