Turnovers Plague Georgia Tech Against Virginia
Another day, another outing where Georgia Tech could not take care of the basketball. Welcoming the defending national champions to McCamish Pavilion, the Yellow Jackets were once again unable to properly take care of the ball, and it was the primary factor behind a 63-58 loss to the Virginia Cavaliers. The loss drops them to 3-6 at home, 3-5 in the ACC, 8-10 overall, and back-to-back conference losses for the first time this se.
A season long achilles' heel as proclaimed by head coach Josh Pastner, the Jackets turned the ball over 18 times in the game, including 13 times in the first half alone.
"We just have to get better about it," he said. "It's something we spend a lot of time on, but it's bit us in the rear many times."
Whenever Tech was not busy giving the ball away, they were actually operating a fairly efficient offense. They shot 50% for the game and 61.1% in the first half, however they were only able to get off 18 first half shots as opposed to 32 in the second half. Junior point guard Jose Alvarado lead all scorers with 20 points on 8-14 shooting.
The first 20 minutes of play was very typical of team facing a Tony Bennett-led defense. The Cavaliers' pack line defense was in full effect, as for a large portion of the opening minutes, the Yellow Jackets had more turnovers than point on the scoreboard. Virginia limited GT to just 18 field goal attempts and 2 offensive rebounds in the first half, but making 11 of those attempts kept the Jackets in the game.
Georgia Tech was much more competitive in the latter half of play, and had a real chance at taking down the defending national champions. Jose Alvarado was much better at breaking down UVA's pick and roll defense, pouring in 18 second half point including a three pointer that cut UVA's lead to 2 with just 7:59 to go. Down the stretch however, once again the Jackets had trouble closing out the contest in the final minutes, inevitably leading to their demise.
Next up, Georgia Tech goes back on the road to face the Louisville Cardinals at the KFC Yum Center. Tipoff is set for Wednesday, January 22nd at 7:00pm EST.
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