Jackets' rough stretch continues with blowout home loss to UVA

The hot seat talk might’ve reached a new level on Wednesday night as Damon Stoudamire’s Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets suffered another blowout loss at home at what could only be described as a disappointing performance in that Virginia dominated to the tune of a 94-68 victory.

Georgia Tech (11-16, 2-12 ACC) trailed by as many as 35 in the first half and never got closer than 26 in the final half as the Jackets lost their eighth straight game with the last victory coming more than a month ago on Jan. 17 at NC State.

“At the end of the day, what I’ve seen, UVA was just a team that was good, looked like some grown-ass men out there,” said Stoudamire. “I thought that they put a lot of pressure on us. And in those moments, man, you’ve got to be able to, you know, be tough enough to go make a shot, you know, stop runs, different things, you know, and get to the point where you’re trying to stop the bleeding in the whole first half and call timeouts.

“After a while, it’s not even about winning and losing. I just…I’m looking to see what we’re made of, you know, just being honest at the end of the day. Because sometimes, you know, it’s more about people tapping your chest. And, you know, I feel that. I can say I feel that personally as a coach. When we’re playing against whoever we’re playing against, tonight it was UVA because I can’t put the jersey on and run up and down. I can’t put the jersey on and run up and down no more. So, sometimes I just want to see…you just want to see a little bit more fight. That’s all. And that for me is at times the disappointing thing.”

Virginia (23-3, 11-2 ACC) was dominant on the boards with an 50-34 edge in the rebounding battle, including 20 on the offensive end that led to 21 second-chance points. The Cavaliers also had a nice night from 3-point range, making 14-of-37 attempts from beyond the arc.

Virginia was led by big games from Thijs De Ridder and Malik Thomas with 22 and 17 points apiece, including Thomas making five attempts from 3-point range. Dallin Hall also finished in double figures with 12 points along with 10 assists for the double-double while Johann Grunloh scored 11.

Ugonna Onyenso had the Cavaliers’ top rebounding total with nine while Chance Mallory pulled down seven.

Georgia Tech’s top scorer in the game was Jaeden Mustaf with 18 points. Baye Ndongo added 13 points and eight rebounds, and Kowacie Reeves Jr. was the third Jacket in double figures with 12. Lamar Washington and Kam Craft each scored seven.

The game started about as bad as it could for Georgia Tech with Baye Ndongo picking up two fouls in the first three minutes and Virginia building a 14-3 lead to force Stoudamire to use an early timeout before the first media stoppage.

The early momentum for the Cavaliers continued as they built a 22-5 lead to force another Jackets’ timeout at the 12:04 mark of the first half. Stoudamire used his third timeout of the half when Virginia went up 36-7 with 8:24 left in the half.

The Virginia lead got as big as 35 in the first half at 49-14 before the Cavaliers settled for a 59-27 halftime advantage. Virginia had three in double figures in scoring in the first half (De Ridder with 13, Thomas with 11, Hall with 10), and the visitors won the rebounding battle 27-14 in the first half with eight offensive boards and 14 second-chance points.

“It’s tough,” said Stoudamire after the loss. “It’s almost getting like Groundhog’s Day when you talk about our starts (to games). It’s weird, you know, but you’ve got to figure something out. You know, you’re playing against a team like Virginia. You’re hoping guys come out and play with some energy. You hope that we’re going to come, we’re going to play with, have more intensity, play with a little more pride early on. I thought that we, in spurts early, we tried. We weren’t always smart about it. We definitely didn’t defend the three-point line. And that’s something that we talked about. Obviously, that’s been hurting us, you know, more than just this game. We’ve been giving up a lot of threes lately.”

The Virginia lead ballooned to as many as 38 in the second half as the Cavaliers continued to win the rebounding battle, get second-chance points and knock down 3-pointers at a high clip.

Georgia Tech will head on the road for the next one as the Jackets visit Louisville on Saturday for a 2:15 p.m. tip, once again trying to break the long losing streak.

After the game, Mustaf said right now it’s about showing pride and fighting, both for themselves and for their head coach, Stoudamire.

“I mean, overall, we’ve just got to keep fighting, like, no matter what,” said Mustaf. “I feel like at this point it’s about pride, just having pride. I feel like we want to come out and rep Georgia Tech well. And that’s like…we’ve got to keep fighting no matter what the score says. We come out every game trying to win. And whether we get down, whether it’s a close game, second half, it kind of gets…whatever it is, we’ve got to keep fighting no matter what. So it’s just about pride for real, for real.”

“Man, we love Coach (Stoudamire),” added Mustaf. “Coach, he does everything, everything that we could ask for. Of course, everybody hears the noise, but, man, we know on the inside, like, he has our best interests, and we want to go out there and fight for him. We hear all this. And it’s just like, man, at the end of the day, that guy’s got our back. We know no matter what, he’s got our back. No matter what situation we’re in, basketball, off the court, whatever it is, he’s got our back. So, you know, just keep fighting for him at the end of the day. That’s what it is.”

Virginia is back on its home court on Saturday to host Miami at 2 p.m.