Reeves late 3 in overtime propels Jackets to thrilling win in opener

It wasn’t the ideal start for Georgia Tech’s Kowacie Reeves Jr. on Monday night, making just 1 of his first 9 3-point attempts vs. Maryland Eastern Shore, but that didn’t stop him from backing down from taking and making the biggest shot of the game, knocking down a 3 with 37 seconds left in overtime to help the Jackets to a tight 56-52 victory on opening night at McCamish Pavilion.

Georgia Tech (1-0) rallied back from a nine-point deficit in the second half and got a free throw from Peyton Marshall with 1.7 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 46-46 and force OT. After building a four-point lead early in the extra session, Maryland Eastern Shore battled back even thanks to a Joseph Locandro jumper with 51 seconds remaining.

That’s when Reeves stepped up and didn’t think twice as he nailed a 3-pointer from the left wing to put his team ahead 55-52 with 37 seconds remaining. After a defensive top and rebound, freshman Mouhamed “Mo” Sylla knocked down a free throw with 2 seconds remaining to seal the victory.

“Kowacie, he hit a big shot after struggling,” said Georgia Tech head coach Damon Stoudamire. “He’s in a good space, and he had one rattle in and out. He took good shots (tonight). We didn’t shoot the ball that well, and we took a couple of bad ones, but a lot of the shots were good shots. I felt we got what we wanted, but when the ball doesn’t go in, at times I think it can give players anxiety. You get a little tight. You get a little nervous, but again to the credit of Wacie, the stuff he did defensively, he didn’t do before. He really got better defensively, he fought down there, he got steals, he was active and active hands.

And yes, I am happy. He has a shooter’s mentality because he didn’t blink, didn’t think, shot it and it went right in.”

Sylla had the top individual offensive stat line for Tech with 14 points and 15 rebounds as he became the first Jackets’ freshman to ever have 15 boards in his first career game. It is the third most rebounds by a freshman behind Baye Ndongo‘s 19 two seasons ago and Derrick Favors’ 18 during his freshman season.

“Everybody getting a chance to see Mo, and I think that Mo is only going to continue to get better,” said Stoudamire. “Personally, I think we’ve got the best frontcourt not only in our league but one of the best frontcourts, if not the best, in the country. I really believe that. And Baye (Ndongo) didn’t even play (tonight).”

The Third-Team preseason All-ACC pick Ndongo, junior forward, did not suit up on Monday night due to “precautionary reasons,” but Stoudamire said he expects him to be back soon, possibly Friday in the Jackets’ next game vs. Bryant. The Jackets were also without transfer guard Lamar Washington, who was expected to start at the point.

Along with Sylla’s big night and double-double, Reeves was the next leading scorer with 12 points. He added four rebounds and four assists. Marshall contributed nine points and eight rebounds, and Jaeden Mustaf scored nine points and had five rebounds. Kam Craft scored seven points.

Locandro was the top scorer for Maryland Eastern Shore (0-1) with 17 points as he went 3-for-3 from 3-point range. Justin Monden added 10 points.

The game started slow offensively for both teams, and the Jackets went on an almost nine-minute scoring drought in the first half with Sylla ending that with a dunk on the break at the 8:27 mark of the first half.

Georgia Tech scored six straight points to take a 21-14 lead late in the half before the visiting Hawks scored the final four points of the first half to cut the Jackets’ lead to 21-18 at halftime.

The Jackets’ second half started similarly to the end of the first half as they were held scoreless until the 13:51 mark on the clock while Maryland Eastern Shore built as much as a nine-point lead.

Tech fought back with six straight points to pull within 30-27 at the under 12 media timeout with 11:20 left on the second half clock.

Maryland Eastern Shore went up by eight at 35-27, but Georgia Tech continued to battle back and a 3 from Mustaf put them ahead at 41-39 with 4:55 remaining in the game.

Monden made two big shots toward the end of regulation for Maryland Eastern Shore, tying the game at 41-41 with 3:51 remaining and then putting his team ahead with a jumper with 10 seconds remaining before Marshall’s late free throw to send it to overtime.

Georgia Tech will be back at home on Friday to host Bryant for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off at McCamish Pavilion.

Stoudamire said it was quite a way to start the season and a show of the team’s growth in the past three seasons since he arrived on The Flats.

“We gave you guys a little bit of excitement for a Monday night,” joked Stoudamire after the game. “But this is what I will say about this group…I’m extremely happy from the standpoint of this, I’ve been here two years, and we would’ve lost this game before. Sometimes in getting better and being able to catch guy’s attention, you need stuff like this to happen. But you want it to happen when you still get the win. So I think tomorrow we’ll have everybody’s attention because I think that sometimes what happens is you can get full of yourself, you don’t think that you’ve got to do the things each and every day to make you successful…the attention to detail, understanding the assignment and who we are as a team and the things that we’ve been working on. Sometimes it goes on a deaf ear until you get into a live game, and I saw some of that today. But to their credit what I was proud of was the resolve.”

Maryland Eastern Shore will travel to Athens to take on Georgia on Wednesday at 7 p.m. as the Hawks continue their southern swing.