Yellow Jackets Handled By Ball State

They've lost their last two home games by a combined 52 points.

There's no other way to put it, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets played exceedingly bad basketball on both ends of the floor tonight in McCamish Pavilion. Tech was plagued by stagnant offense and defense which lead to a 65-47 defeat at the hands of the Ball State Cardinals in the on campus edition of the Diamond Head Classic. Had it not been for a late 12-0 run to end the game with the Ball State backups in, the final score would have been much worse. It's Tech's 3rd consecutive loss, and drops them to below .500 on the season.

"I don't have an explanation on why we played like the way we did," head coach Josh Pastner said. "I thought we played selfish, I thought we were very lethargic. ... I've got to do a better job with that."

For the majority of the night, Tech played a selfish brand of basketball where most of the possessions were one-on-one drives with the other 4 players just standing around. Meanwhile on the other the end of the court, the lack of energy on the defensive side allowed the Cardinals to move the ball around like they were the mid-2000's San Antonio Spurs.

The night marked the Georgia Tech debut of forward Jordan Usher, suiting up for the first time since he became eligible at the end of the semester after transferring from USC. Surprisingly, head coach Josh Pastner opted to start him and not utilize him in a bench role, most likely to try and help Tech's recent struggles with slow starts. But even that did not go as planned, as he went 1-7 on the night and picked up 3 fouls in the first 13 minutes of the game.

The first 7 minutes of the game was actually competitive. The Institute held a 8-7 advantage, and even Jordan Usher chipped in with his first collegiate points in a Yellow Jacket uniform. Then from there on out, Tech was in complete disarray. Ball State then railed off a 13-0 run, and then all offensive rhythm was thrown out the window. They turned the ball over 10 times in their first 19 possessions, and finished the first half with more turnovers than points.

"It was embarrassing," senior center James Banks III said.

The second half was marginally better from an offensive standpoint, with Georgia Tech shooting 41.4% as opposed to the 22.7% they shot in the first. However, the defense was still getting their feet stuck and allowing Ball State to get open looks, thus allowing the Cardinals lead to continue to balloon. Ball State led by as much as 30 points before head coach James Whitford called off the dogs and sent in the backups.

Next up, Georgia Tech travels to Hawaii to take part in the Diamond Head Classic. They'll play 3 games in 4 days, starting with Boise State on Sunday, December 22nd. Tip will be at 5:00pm EST on ESPNU.

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