ATLANTA- A shorthanded Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets picked up the second unofficial win of the season under first-year head coach Damon Stoudamire. This one came 91-75 over Clark Atlanta in the Jackets’ lone public exhibition.
The win doesn’t count, but Stoudamire was happy to see the progress despite having three main rotation players out and another who got injured in the game and was not able to play in the second half.
“I was happy tonight because these games can always go in a different direction, but I got a lot of confidence in the guys. Being short of bodies hurts you sometimes and we had a couple of big guys out and then we got in foul trouble and guys had to play longer than I would’ve liked to. I couldn’t use the depth as I planned. I was very happy with our assist number and we made threes. Between our secret scrimmage, we made 33 threes in two games which is good. I don’t mind guys shooting the ball and we have really good three-point shooters. I was disappointed in the amount of turnovers, but some of that was guys playing too many minutes, but we had three of our better ball handlers in there,” Stoudamire said.
Tech allowed Clark Atlanta to shoot 25 free throws in the second half keeping the Panthers in striking distance for much of the game along with 14 second-chance points to Tech’s five.
“Lastly on the defensive side, I was disappointed in giving up 20 offensive rebounds and the biggest guy on their team only had. To me, it was more of a size-on-size. We have to get tougher. Sometimes you get into being a prisoner of the moment and things feel funny and they feel like it is something it is not and we shrunk the floor and fouled them a lot. I told our guys why are you inching out to three-point shooters and leaving gaps, they were only 5-23 from three. I was pleased with the effort for our first dry run in front of fans,” he said.
Florida transfer Kowacie Reeves slams home a dunk off a dish from Kyle Sturdivant (Danny Karnik/Georgia Tech Athletics)
Florida transfer Kowacie Reeves led all scorers with 19 points on 8-11 shooting and 3-6 from three, eight rebounds and four assists.
“It felt good to compete and be in the game atmosphere for the first time,” Reeves said.
“Kowacie has done really a great job from the day he got here he has been bought into what I am selling. When you have the athleticism and the shooting ability he has, he is still learning the game and he is raw and scratching the surface of what he can be. The way he can drive and shoot the ball, he will be a really good player,” Stoudamire said.
Ole Miss transfer Amaree Abram had 18 points and six rebounds in just under 25 minutes of action.
“It was great and we’ve been working for a long time since the summer and we competed hard,” Abram said of the exhibition.
Abram’s shooting was really impressive as he hit all four of his three-point attempts and missed just one shot in 25 minutes of work.
“Amaree really shot the ball well here, when I saw him on film for the first time, I thought he was a better spot-up shooter than people think. When he gets his feet set, he can really hit. When the lights come on he gets a little bit better. That is why when you play these exhibitions,” Stoudamire said.
Kyle Sturdivant added 11 assists off the bench and five points in 24 minutes. Tech had 25 assists on 33 made field goals.
“Kyle was really good in the second half. I thought he did a great job. The one thing about Kyle is he will compete and he is seasoned. He has been in big games. He played on the ACC Championship team here and played with some pros. He did a great job and the ball was moving,” Stoudamire said.
Tafara Gapare left the game in the first half with an apparent leg injury. He warmed up for the second half briefly but never returned to the game. He ended his public Tech debut with nine points, two steals and a rebound in nine minutes of action.
Tech had to play without big men Tyzhaun Claude, Baye Ndongo, and Ibrahim Souare as well as guard Lance Terry from the main rotation. Gapare’s injury stretched things even further leaving Ebenezer Dowuona as the only true big man on the floor. Stoudamire was pleased to see how his team reacted to adversity and with a different rotation than expected in the game.
“Tafara was precautionary, he will be back and will be back. Ty we will find out more tomorrow on what is going on with him. We will know more on Baye on Friday. Then Lance, he is going to need a little bit more time, looking at the second or third game. It is a good problem, when those guys come back our depth will be right and I can play more guys. I don’t look at it as an issue, if you look at teams that have success they can keep fresh guys in the game,” Stoudamire.
Kelly was just 4-12 shooting from three in the game and he hit three of his final four attempts to score double digits (Danny Karnik/Georgia Tech Athletic Association)
Tech shot 16 of 35 from three in the game and 58% overall from the field in the win. Star guard Miles Kelly struggled going 4-12 from three and was 1-8 at one point before hitting three of his final four shots late in the game from three to score 12 points.
The Panthers outrebounded the Jackets on the offensive glass 20-6 and that was an issue for Stoudamire. Tech should’ve had a bigger advantage in rebounding given that Clark Atlanta shot just 25-72 from the floor in the game under 35%.
“With my main guys out in terms of the rebounding, when I look at it in the big picture, their big guy had just two rebounds. We didn’t have great rebounder in the game and people tend to watch. We need five guys to rebound, I’ve emphasized that and we can’t tie in the rebound battle if we are going to be a successful team and we have to win the turnover battle. Our margin of error isn’t like that,” Stoudamire said.
Tech’s turnovers also exploded in the second half thanks to a full court press Clark Atlanta used in the second half extensively. The Jackets had seven turnovers at the half and 11 in the second half. Reeves said that going against the press so much early should help them in league play later this season.
“The press was good for us especially when we get into conference play and the young guys who haven’t experienced conference play at this level,” Reeves said.
Freshmen Ibrahima Sacko and Nait George both played with Sacko putting up nine points, eight rebounds and two blocks in 19 minutes before fouling out. George was limited to just six minutes of work and he had one assist and one turnover.
“Sacko and Nait George were ready and we had more guys out than usual. They were ready to compete and they weren’t scared to play,” Reeves said.
Stoudamire thinks he may have found a diamond in the rough in Sacko.
“I think Sacko is going to be one of the more underrated guys. He came from Guinea and he has only been in the States for a year and he is a bit unknown because of a language barrier. He was at Hoops Summit and didn’t play in the game because of an injury. He is an energy guy and more importantly, he is a physical guy. Between Sacko, Tafara and Kowacie they play like that.”
Gapare flashed in his time on the court as well after a very limited role at UMass last season as a mid-year early enrollee.
“Tafara you see glimpses of the talent he has. He was in New Zealand last year and he didn’t come over to UMass until December, then this summer and he injured his thumb. We have issues with thumbs and fingers, this was the first time with extended practice. He is scratching the surface of who he can be,” Stoudamire said.
The first two subs of the game were Kyle Sturdivant and Ibrahima Sacko. The starting lineup was Dowuona, Gapare, Kelly, Reeves, and Abram.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Tech led 43-28 at the half behind 11 points from Amare Abram and 10 points from Kowacie Reeves. Abram was a perfect 3-3 from the arc. Reeves added five rebounds and two assists in the first half in 16 minutes. The Jackets were 8-19 from three in the first half while Clark Atlanta hit just 2 of 11 from the arc. Tech had 10 assists on 14 made field goals in the first frame.
Amaree Abram opened up the scoring for the Jackets with a three and capped a 12-0 run with a second three leading to a Clark Atlanta timeout with 16:22 left in the first half and the Jackets up 12-4. Gapare added five more points including three at the free throw line to extend the lead to 17-6 before the Panthers snapped it. Tech led 25-15 at the second media timeout with 10:36 left behind 4-8 shooting from three. The Panthers hit four straight baskets and cut the Tech lead to 28-22 at the third media timeout with 7:48 left in the half. Tech went through a funk with ten minutes to go in the half not hitting a field goal for over five minutes before a Reeves three extended the lead to 35-24 with just over four minutes to go.
Clark Atlanta chipped away a little at the Jackets’ lead cutting it to 48-40 coming out of the first media timeout with just over 15 minutes left and got it all the way to six before a 7-0 run capped by a Reeves corner three extended the lead back to 13, 55-42 leading to a Panthers’ timeout. Sturdivant dished out three straight dunks in transition with two to Ibrahima Sacko and one to Reeves to extend the Tech lead to 19, 61-42 with 11:44 to go. Deebo Coleman fouled out with 8:#2 left. Tech turned the ball over five times in a three-minute span to let Clark Atlanta have a glimmer of hope, but a Sacko layup and Kelly three both off Sturdivant assists put the Jackets back up 19. Sacko fouled out with nine points, eight rebounds and two blocks off the bench. The Jackets picked up a few more buckets from Kelly late from three to ice the game.
