Georgia Tech Doomed By Tough Second-Half Shooting Performance & Inconsistency vs Stanford

How bad was the Yellow Jackets second half performance?

It was pretty abysmal for the Yellow Jackets, who shot well in the first half, making 51% of their shots from the field and shot 75% from beyond the arc. Three different Yellow Jackets had a three-pointer made in the first half. Georgia Tech trailed 43-39 at the break.

The second half would be an entirely different story as the Yellow Jackets were outscored 13-4 and went 1-7 from the field early on in the second period. That allowed Stanford to build its lead into double figures after leading by just four points. The Yellow Jackets shot 12-34 from the field and 2-11 from three-point range. One of their best shooters, Kam Craft, went 0-3 from long range after putting together a couple of good performances in the last few outings. Head coach Damon Stoudamire talked about the struggles.

“I just didn't think we executed well on either end of the floor in the second half. Defensively, we didn't do a good job of containing (Ebuka) Okorie. We know he's the best player on the floor. So, you've got to account for him. We didn't do a great job on that end, and it makes it hard when he hits three as well. He made free throws as well. He is great at drawing fouls, and he did that all game long. He just put so much pressure on us. Again, it was just the most disappointing thing about us on the defensive end was that we did not do a good job of containing him and giving the ball handler cushion to know where his help was. These are things that, you know, you go ove,r and you know, we didn't have any game carryover in the second half. In terms of, you know, our shooting, you know, it speaks for itself. We shot 51 in the first half. and we shot 35 in the second, you know, so that's a recipe for disaster when you can't get stops, you know, then you're not shooting the ball well.”

The Yellow Jackets had four players with only one field goal in the second half of the game, and four players who didn’t record a single field goal in the second half of the contest. That simply can’t happen if you want to win. Three of those players were starters. Kam Craft went 0-3 from the field, Lamar Washington 0-2, and Jaeden Mustaf went 1-9. You need more out of your starting backcourt group if you are going to go on the road and pull off major victories. In addition to the shooting, a thing that has plagued the Yellow Jackets is the inconsistency night in and night out. They are a very hot and cold team. In other stories, we have mentioned slow starts as an issue. On Saturday night, they had a good start but couldn’t sustain it into the second half of the game. They can’t put it all together for 40 minutes to have a complete game.

The biggest issue that is plaguing Georgia Tech is the inconsistency, especially in shooting the ball. It’s okay to have different scorers who can put the ball in the basket each night. However, you need consistency in who your main scorers are. When the team is in a rut, who gets the ball to calm things down? On a night in and night out basis, we don’t know what team we are going to get. Is it the team that went to Cameron Indoor Stadium and challenged Duke? Or is it the team that lost at home and got blown out by Pittsburgh? With only seven games left in the season, Georgia Tech must find a spark now to have a shot at playing in the ACC tourney or their send will end on March 7th at Clemson.

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