Jackets Rally Past Boston College, 73-65

Chestnut Hill, Mass. – Miles Kelly knocked down a pair of three-point field goals to ignite an 11-0 rally, bringing Georgia Tech back from a nine-point deficit and enabling the Yellow Jackets to capture a 73-65 victory over Boston College Saturday afternoon at the Silvio O. Conte Forum.

Tech (14-17, 6-14 ACC) finished the regular-season with two straight road victories and has won six of its last eight games. The Yellow Jackets, who had already locked in the 13^th seed in next week’s ACC Tournament, defeated Boston College for the fifth straight time in the series and for the third straight time in Chestnut Hill. The Eagles (15-16, 9-11 ACC) saw their three-game winning streak snapped and will be the No. 10 seed in the ACC Tournament.

The Jackets had fallen behind 55-46 with just under 10 minutes left in the game after BC went on a 13-2 run, and had missed 16 of their last 17 three-point tries. Kelly, who finished the game with 21 points, drained a three on Tech’s next possession, then hit another after a BC turnover to bring Tech within 55-52 at the 9:16 mark. Lance Terry hit another three to tie the game and made a pair of free throws on back-to-back possessions to put the Yellow Jackets ahead, 57-55, with 6:48 to go.

The teams went back-and-forth for the next five minutes, with two lead changes and two ties before Kelly gave Tech the lead for good (66-63) with another three, this one from NBA range at the 1:46 mark. Sturdivant followed with another three for a 69-63 lead with just under a minute to go, then sealed the game with four straight free throws.

Tech started out by making its first three 3-point tries, missed 16 of its next 17 attempts, then made seven of nine in the final 10 minutes of the game, finishing the game 11-of-29 from distance.

Kelly hit 7-of-14 shots from the floor, including 5-of-11 three-pointers, for his 21 points. Terry scored 17 points, including three three-pointers, and had seven rebounds, and Sturdivant finished with 14 points and four assists. Ja’von Franklin had eight points and 15 rebounds, missing a double-double when he went 0-for-2 at the foul line in the final minute.

Atlanta native T.J. Bickerstaff led the Eagles with 15 points, followed by Zackery with 14 and C.J. Penha with 13.

Tech opens play in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Greensboro, N.C., against Florida State. The game will be nationally televised on the ACC Network.

 

Miles Kelly led the Yellow Jackets with 21 points, including five three-point field goals. (photo courtesy of Boston College athletics)

 

Next stop: Gas station 😎⛽️ pic.twitter.com/MiUQg64WLk

— Georgia Tech Men’s Basketball (@GTMBB) March 4, 2023

Post-Game Notes

TEAM TRENDS

• Georgia Tech finished the regular season winning six of its final nine games, and five of its final eight ACC games.
• Tech finished the regular season by winning back-to-back road games for the first time since beating Miami and Virginia Tech back to back in February of 2021.
• Tech has won five straight games in the series with Boston College, and three straight games at the Conte Forum.
• Tech managed to win the game and outscore Boston College 37-35 in the second half despite being outshot 50 percent to 36.7 percent after halftime. Tech did not turn the ball over in the second half.
• Tech has scored 70 points or more in seven of its last eight games (Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Florida Tech, Louisville, Syracuse, Boston College), the only exception being its 68-point game at Pittsburgh. The Yellow Jackets are 12-2 this season when scoring 70 or more points (6-2 in the ACC), 2-15 when failing to reach 70.
• Tech has exceeded 100 points per 100 possessions (KenPom offensive efficiency rating) in each of its last eight games, the Yellow Jackets’ longest such streak since the 2021 ACC Championship unit did so in its final 10 games.
• Tech also has limited four of its last six opponents under 100 points per 100 possessions defensively.
• Tech has connected on 41 three-point field goals in 96 attempts in its last three games (42.7 percent), making 11 or more in each game, including a school-record 18 at Syracuse on Feb. 28. It is the first time Tech has made 10 or more threes in three straight games since the 2001-02 season, when the Jackets turned the trick against Florida State (10), North Carolina (12) and Clemson (11) in consecutive games. It has happened one other time, during the 1995-96 season vs. Duke (10), North Carolina (10) and Western Carolina (10). Tech has never made 10 or more threes in four consecutive games.
• Going back to Tech’s Feb. 15 win over Virginia Tech (last six games), Tech has averaged 11.5 three-point field goals per game, making 40.4 percent.

• Ja’von Franklin grabbed 15 rebounds for the second straight game, the first time a Tech player has taken 15 or more in back-to-back games since Charles Mitchell had 15 vs. Wake Forest and 19 vs. Clemson back-to-back during the 2015-16 season.
• Lance Terry has played the full 40 minutes in five of Tech’s six ACC wins. At Syracuse, he came out for the final 56 seconds when Tech emptied its bench in the 20-point victory. In those six games, Terry has averaged 19.2 points while connecting on 48.8 percent of his field goals (40-of-82), 54.8 percent of his three-point attempts (23-of-42).
• Miles Kelly has reached double figures in six straight games, averaging 20.2 points and hitting 41-of-83 from the floor (49.4 pct.) and 28-of-61 from three-point range (45.9 pct.). This comes after a stretch in which he scored in double digits just three times in nine games and averaged 9.8 points.
• Kelly is the first Tech player to make at least five three-point field goals in four consecutive games (6 vs. Pitt, 5 vs. Louisville, 7 vs. Syracuse, 5 vs. Boston College) since Lewis Clinch did so during the 2008-09 season (6 vs. Wake Forest, 6 vs. Clemson, 6 vs. North Carolina, 9 vs. Miami). Clinch’s streak ended at four games.
• Kyle Sturdivant has averaged 12.6 points over his last 10 games, having reached double figures in eight of them, including his career nigh of 20 points at Syracuse. He has made 19-of-47 from three-point range (40.4 pct.) over that stretch.
• Deebo Coleman has not scored in double figures in Tech’s last five games, but he has an 18/3 assist/turnover ratio across those games.

Lance Terry scored 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds. (photo courtesy of Boston College athletics)

 

Game Highlights

 

Post-Game Press Conference

Head coach Josh Pastner post-game audio