When it rains it pours, and the Yellow Jackets are caught in a bit of a deluge.
Georgia Tech lost its third straight game Tuesday, a 70-59 setback to Clemson, a game in which it played without leading scorer Lance Terry. Terry, a senior guard, watched from the bench with a right hand injury — to his right sat guard Kowacie Reeves (foot) and forward Luke O’Brien (toe) who were both also inactive due to injury.
Coach Damon Stoudamire, now 22-28 and 9-18 against the ACC as Tech’s coach, did not have a timetable for how long Terry would be out.
“Man, I’m gonna keep fighting,” he added. “I can’t make no excuses because it’s just a part of the business. We are in a business where nobody really cares and I understand that. The places that I’ve been, I feel like I was always there for a reason and you go through a little something and you just kinda find out who you are even more, so to speak, at 51 (years old). You can still find out more.
“So I feel like right now it’s just figuring things out, adjusting on the run. It’s a part of coaching, it’s a part of teaching, it’s a part of healing. A whole lot of different things because you’re still trying to connect a group of young men. It’s already hard anyway, but it makes it harder when guys are in and out. These guys have given me their all and I think it showed tonight. I was proud of them for the way they played and competed.”
Knowing it was up against it from the get-go, Tech didn’t lack fight, it just didn’t have the horses to run with one of the ACC’s top units for 40 minutes in front of a crowd of 4,047. The Jackets (8-10) trailed for all but the first 23 seconds of the game and dropped to 2-5 in the conference standings while dressing with only eight scholarship players.
Baye Ndongo turned in a double-double of 12 rebounds and 14 points for Tech. Naithan George scored 13, Jaeden Mustaf turned in 12 and Javian McCollum had 11.
The Jackets play at Florida State (11-5, 2-3 ACC) at noon Saturday.
“We’re a good team. We just gotta make this turnaround,” McCollum said. “We just gotta get out of this rut. It’s hard to get out of a rut. Everyone has to want it, everyone has to stay positive, come in, get better, watch film, do whatever it takes to get where we wanna go. If everyone buys into that, it’s all good from there.”
Shorthanded or not, Tech did not play inspired basketball at the outset Tuesday. The Jackets missed their first 10 shots and didn’t score until 7:18 had ticked off the clock. Duncan Powell’s layup at that point drew more of a large cheer from the home fans in attendance, but it was one more of relief than excitement
Clemson didn’t take advantage of Tech’s shortcomings, however, and led just 8-2 through 8 1/2 minutes while shooting 28.6%.
The Jackets regained some composure and got an alley-oop from McCollum to Ndongo at 8-6 and then got a 3 from George with 9:11 on the clock to get within 13-11. Tech missed its first six 3-pointers before George’s connection.
Mustaf’s steal and two-handed slam with 6 1/2 minutes to play before the break punctuated a 7-0 run for Tech and got the Jackets within 19-18. But that would be as close as the home team got while Clemson finished the half on a 17-7 spurt to enjoy a 36-25 lead.
And since Tech’s comeback never formulated in the second half, the Jackets fell to 3-22 — and 0-9 this season — under Stoudamire when trailing at halftime.
“The effort was there. I was proud of the guys. They played hard, they competed and we had our moments,” Stoudamire added. “Unfortunately, you don’t win a game by getting moments and you don’t half a point. It’s the left-hand column or the right-hand column. So we just gotta regroup and get ready for Saturday.”
Clemson (14-4, 6-1 ACC) led by 17, after a Chauncey Wiggins 3, a little less than 11 minutes into the second half, and then by 19 after an Ian Schieffelin triple about 30 seconds later. That would be the Tigers’ biggest lead, one that was never in danger.
Jaeden Zackary, one of four Tigers in double figures, paced Clemson with 21 points. Viktor Lahkin had 10 points, six rebounds and four assists while Schieffelin finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and six boards.
