Jackets Fall, 75-64, at Florida State

Tallahassee, Fla. – Lance Terry scored a team-high 17 points and Miles Kelly added 16, but Georgia Tech surrendered runs of 11-0 late in the first half and 10-0 early in the second half, falling 75-64 to Florida State on the road Saturday afternoon at the Donald L. Tucker Center.

Looking to build on the momentum of Wednesday’s win over No. 12 Miami, the Yellow Jackets (8-7, 1-4 ACC) led by as many as nine points in the opening half but could not sustain it. The Seminoles (5-11, 3-2 ACC) made 10 three-point field goals in the game and capitalized on eight second-half turnovers by Tech to win the game.

Tech held a 34-28 advantage at the 4:18 mark on Deivon Smith’s running jumper. But the Seminoles put together an 11-0 run to take the lead before Deebo Coleman’s layup with 19 seconds to go left the Jackets trailing 39-36 at intermission.

Tech missed its first six field goal attempts of the second half before Terry’s driving layup at the 15:57 mark. FSU made four of five attempts and built a 47-40 lead, forcing Tech to call timeout at 15:06. Another 10-0 run by the Seminoles, fueled by four Tech turnovers, expended the lead to 55-40 at the 13:37 mark, forcing the Jackets to take their final timeout of the game.

FSU continued to build its lead to as many as 22 points before the Jackets finished the game by outscoring the Seminoles 14-2. Tech made seven 3s in first half, but none in second until Coleman drained on at the 4:58 mark. By then FSU was up 73-51, its largest lead.

As he did in the first half against Miami Wednesday, Kelly came out hot, scoring 16 of Tech’s first 23 points in the game. He hit his first six shots from the floor, including four three-pointers, but he missed his last eight attempts and did not score again.

Matthew Cleveland led the Seminoles with 21 points and 12 rebounds, his fifth straight double-double. Darin Green, after missing all five of his three-point attempts in the first half, made 4-of-6 after intermission and finished with 18 points. Caleb Mills added 13.

Tech returns to the court Tuesday night for a 7 p.m. game against Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. The game will be televised live on the ACC Network.

 

Miles Kelly made his first six shots from the floor and scored 16 of Tech’s first 23 points in the game. (photo by Ross Obley)

 

Post-Game Notes

TEAM NOTES

• Tech fell to 1-3 in road games this season, 0-2 in conference road games.
• Tech is 2-7 this season when it fails to score 70 points, 6-9 when it scores 70 or more.
• Tech is 1-7 this season when the opponent makes a higher percentage of its field goal attempts, 7-0 when it has a better percentage.
• Tech’s bench outscored that of its opponent for the ninth time in 15 games this season, though the Yellow Jacket reserves scored just 13 points against Florida State (7) and has tallied just 17 in its last two games. The Jackets entered the weekend No. 2 in the ACC in bench scoring (22.5 ppg).
• Tech used nine players against Florida State and has utilized nine or more in 12 of 15 games this season. After using just three bench players for a total of 43 minutes against Miami (21.5 percent), four reserves played a total of 50 minutes against the Seminoles (25 percent). The Jackets rank No. 148 in the nation this season in bench minutes (32.2 pct.), and only one other Josh Pastner Tech team has seen its reserves play more.
• Tech’s sophomore group of Deebo Coleman, Miles Kelly and Jalon Moore scored 34 of the Yellow Jackets’ 64 points against Florida State. That group has accounted for 47.5 of Tech’s total points this season.
• Tech is 25-of-64 (39 percent) from three-point range over its last three games. The Jackets were 9-of-24 each against Miami and Florida State, 7-of-16 against Virginia.
• Tech led the ACC and ranks ninth in the nation in three-point defense before Florida State hit 10-of-25 against the Jackets. Tech has allowed 27.7 percent from distance in all games, 30 percent in ACC games. Virginia and FSU combined to hit 20-of-47 against the Jackets, while North Carolina, Clemson and Miami were 13-for-63 combined.
• Tech is 26-of-31 from the foul line in its last two games.
• Tech has averaged 17 turnovers in its last three games, surrendering an average of 20 points off those turnovers.

 

INDIVIDUAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Miles Kelly has reached double figures in points in 10 straight games, leading the Yellow Jackets in the scoring column in six of those. Kelly has averaged 16.4 points and 3.7 rebounds over that stretch. He has connected on 55-of-121 shots from the floor (45.5 pct.), 31-of-69 from three-point range (44.9 pct.) and 23-of-24 from the foul line across those eight games.
• Kelly is averaging 17.8 points and has hit 43.9 percent of his threes over five ACC games.
• Kelly has hit his last 21 free throw attempts dating back to the Iowa game on Nov. 28, when he made the second of his two attempts. He was 7-for-7 against Miami and is 14-for-14 over Tech’s last four games.
• Lance Terry has led Tech in scoring each of its last two games (24 vs. Miami, 17 vs. Florida State), tallying a total of 41 points with 13 rebounds while connecting on 14-of-28 from the floor, 7-for-11 from three-point range and 6-of-8 from the foul line.
• Terry has scored in double digits five times this season and is averaging 11.8 points in ACC games while hitting 10-of-21 from three-point range (47.6 percent).
• In two career games at the Donald L. Tucker Center, Terry has scored 40 points. He scored 23 against the Seminoles in a 2020 game while playing at Gardner-Webb.
• Deebo Coleman has scored 25 points in Tech’s last two games with six assists, hitting 8-of-20 from the floor and 4-of-13 from three-point range. He is averaging 9.8 points in ACC games.
• Rodney Howard has connected on 26-of-36 shots from the floor dating back to Nov. 23 vs. Marquette, covering 10 games. That includes a streak of 13 consecutive makes from his last two attempts of the Northeastern game through his first four of the Alabama State game (4-for-4 vs. Georgia, 3-for-3 at North Carolina). For the season he has connected on 63 percent of his field goal tries, 64.7 percent in ACC games.

Lance Terry lead the Jackets in scoring for the second straight game, tallying 17 points. (photo by Ross Obley)

 

Game Highlights

Post-Game Press Conference

Head coach Josh Pastner press conference audio