Nov. 23, 2003
Jarrett Jack led five Georgia Tech players in double figures with 21 points and added eight assists, six rebounds and four steals to lead the Yellow Jackets to a 90-69 victory at Cornell. The Jackets improved to 3-0 on the season and now face top-ranked Connecticut in the Preseason NIT semifinals Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. at Madison Square Garden.
Jack equalled his career scoring high, while Marvin Lewis added 18 points. B.J. Elder recorded a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Luke Schenscher contributed 15 points and Ism’ail Muhammad added 12 points in the win for Tech.
Senior point guard Ka’Ron Barnes led the Big Red with 21 points and six assists, while Cody Toppert added 16 points, Eric Taylor netted 14 and Gabe Stephenson poured in 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for his third career double-double.
Georgia Tech limited Cornell to 39 percent shooting, including 30 percent after the break, and forced 21 turnovers to ruin the Big Red’s season and home opener. The Yellow Jackets also held a 44-37 edge on the boards. A sellout crowd of 4,762 were present for the game.
Cornell pulled within one point of the Jackets with about 13 minutes to play before Tech took control with a 14-2 scoring run.
The Big Red took a 21-13 lead less than eight mintues in on a fastbreak layup by sophomore David Lisle. Toppert led the charge by hitting all three of his shots, including a pair of 3-pointers. Cornell held the lead throughout the first half before Tech went on a run to regain the lead with 6:28 left. The Big Red ended the half trailing by four at 42-38 after Lewis hit a runner in the lane with 19 seconds remaining before the intermission. It was the Yellow Jacket defense that proved to be the difference in the second half as Cornell managed just 1-of-12 treys in the second after after connecting on 7-of-13 before the half.
