Virginia Basketball vs. Georgia Tech Game Preview, Score Prediction

Matt Newton | Feb 11, 2025

Aaron Snyde

For live updates of the Virginia vs. Georgia Tech game: Virginia vs. Georgia Tech Live Updates | NCAA Men's Basketball

Virginia will honor Tony Bennett in a halftime ceremony on Saturday at John Paul Jones Arena and the Cavaliers will look to celebrate their former head coach with a victory as they host Georgia Tech for a Saturday night ACC matchup.

Read on for a full preview of Virginia vs. Georgia Tech, including game details and notes, an opponent scouting report, what to watch for, and a score prediction for Saturday's matchup.

Virginia vs. Georgia Tech Game Details

Who: Virginia Cavaliers (11-12, 4-8 ACC) vs. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (11-12, 5-7 ACC)

When: Saturday, February 8th at 5:30pm ET

Where: John Paul Jones Arena (14,623) in Charlottesville, VA

How to watch: The CW

Commentators: Tom Werme (Play-By-Play), Mike Gminski (Analyst)

How to listen: SiriusXM 384, SXM App 974 | Virginia Sports Radio Network

All-time series: Virginia leads 49-40

Last meeting: Virginia defeated Georgia Tech 72-57 on March 9th, 2024 in Charlottesville.

Virginia vs. Georgia Tech Game Notes

• Virginia leads Georgia Tech 49-40 in the all-time series that dates back to 1947.
• The Cavaliers own a 27-11 record against the Yellow Jackets in Charlottesville and a 10-1 mark in games played at John Paul Jones Arena.
• Virginia has a 12-game winning streak in the series against Georgia Tech and has won 20 of the last 22 meetings.
• The Yellow Jackets' last win over the Cavaliers was on January 9th, 2016 in Atlanta and Georgia Tech hasn't won at UVA since earning an overtime victory against Virginia in 2008, the only victory for the Yellow Jackets at John Paul Jones Arena.
• Virginia is currently tied for 14th in the ACC standings with a 4-8 conference record, while Georgia Tech is tied for ninth at 5-7 in ACC play.

Scouting Report: Georgia Tech

2023-2024: 14-18, 7-13 ACC (12th)
2024-2025: 11-12, 5-7 ACC (9th)

In year 2 under head coach Damon Stoudamire, consistency has eluded Georgia Tech, who suffered losses to North Florida, Georgia, Cincinnati, Oklahoma, and Northwestern in non-conference play. After suffering losses to North Carolina and Duke early in ACC play, the Yellow Jackets picked up home wins against Notre Dame and Boston College, but then endured a four-game losing streak with losses to Syracuse, SMU, Clemson, and Florida State. Since then, however, Georgia Tech has been playing better basketball, winning three of its last four games, including a pair of impressive victories against Louisville (snapping the Cardinals' 10-game winning streak) and at Clemson, a triple overtime win for the Jackets last Tuesday.

6'3" redshirt senior guard Lance Terry is the team's leading scorer at 15.6 points per game. Terry has scored in double figures 17 times this season and has seven games with 20 or more points. He is a 38.0% three-point shooter on more than six attempts per game and also averages 1.3 steals per game.

Oklahoma transfer Javian McCollum is the second-leading scorer at 12.2 points per game. The 6'2" senior guard is a 36.3% three-point shooter and is also averaging 1.3 steals per game.

Rounding out Georgia Tech's starting back court is the team's floor general in 6'3" sophomore guard Naithan George, who is averaging 11.8 points per game and 6.3 assists per game. George is the ACC's leader in assists and ranks 11th in the country in that category. He is also fifth in the ACC in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.39 and has scored in double-figures in each of the last 10 games, including a 28-point performance in the win over Clemson on Tuesday.

In the front court, 6'9" sophomore forward Baye Ndongo was a preseason All-ACC selection. Ndongo is averaging 11.9 points per game and is the team's leading rebounder at 7.9 boards pre game. Joining Ndongo in the front court is 6'9" redshirt freshman forward Ibrahim Souare, who is from Conakry, Guinea, the same hometown as Mamadi Diakite. Souare has started the last six games and has registered 11 blocks in ACC play.

Georgia Tech's rotation has tightened significantly in ACC play as a result of a slew of injuries and other personnel restrictions. Kowacie Reeves Jr. (9.3 ppg) has missed the last 17 games with foot injury, Luke O'Brien (6.4 ppg) has been out for the last 11 games with a toe injury, and Jaeden Mustaf (9.1 ppg) has been sidelined for the last five games with a foot injury. Additionally, 6'11" center Doryan Onwuchekwa hasn't played the last 11 games for personal reasons. That leaves 6'8" forward Duncan Powell, who averages 10.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per game and shoots 34.2% from three, as the lone key contributor off the bench for the Yellow Jackets. Powell played a staggering 49 minutes off the bench in that triple overtime contest at Clemson and scored 19 points.

What to Watch For in Virginia vs. Georgia Tech

Can Dai Dai Ames do it again?
Ames went off for a career-high 27 points last time out against Pitt. It wasn't as if he hit a bunch of shots he doesn't normally make either, as Ames got a few wide-open threes, got consistently great separation on his patented mid-range jumper, and maneuvered his way to the basket for easy layups time and time again. It could have been a flash in the pan, but I think it's possible that Ames might have figured something out in terms of his role within Virginia's offense, especially when opposing defenses pay too much attention to Isaac McKneely's three-point abilities or to Andrew Rohde, who has been distributing the ball at a very high level recently. Virginia doesn't necessarily need 27 points from Ames again, but if he can score with consistency, the Hoos are much more formidable offensively.

Can Virginia keep a streak going?
Many of Virginia's great winning streaks have come to an end this season, be that the streak of wins in ACC openers or the streaks against specific opponents like Louisville and Notre Dame at John Paul Jones Arena. One that remains is a 12-game winning streak in the series against Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets also haven't won in Charlottesville since 2008, their lone victory at John Paul Jones Arena. The past has no impact on the present, but the Hoos would love to see at least one of these streaks survive this difficult season.

Tony Bennett in the building
Bennett has attended a few games this season, but the spotlight will be on him frequently throughout the game. It'll be interesting to see what kind of impact, if any, his presence has on the energy of the team who came to Virginia to play for him. It would certainly be nice for the Cavaliers to get a win on the night that they celebrate their old coach.

Virginia vs. Georgia Tech Prediction

Georgia Tech is playing some good basketball right now, but you could argue the same for Virginia. Had Andrew Rohde's buzzer-beater gone down last week against Virginia Tech, the Cavaliers would be coming into this game on a three-game winning streak. And UVA is coming off of by far its best win of the season to date, a rout of Pitt on the road. If the Hoos can find a way to bottle the recipe from that game and apply it moving forward, they could potentially end this trying season on a high note and certainly could win this game.

Score prediction: Georgia Tech 65, Virginia 68

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