Ndongo’s Putback Lifts Tech Over Cal in OT

THE FLATS – Baye Ndongo, Naithan George and Duncan Powell combined to score 71 points, including including Ndongo’s tip-in at the buzzer that gave Georgia Tech men’s basketball a heart-stopping 90-88 overtime win over visiting California on Saturday afternoon at McCamish Pavilion.

Georgia Tech trailed by five early in overtime and by two with less than a minute to go, but Ndongo scored the game’s final four points to lift the Yellow Jackets to the thrilling victory. Ndongo knotted the game at 88-88 on a turnaround jumper with 43 seconds remaining then, after a steal by Powell on the other end of the floor, he tipped in George’s running jumper as time expired, setting off a wild celebration by the Yellow Jackets and a raucous McCamish Pavilion crowd.

With the victory, Georgia Tech (13-13, 7-8 ACC) finished off this week’s sweep of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s California membership (Stanford and Cal) and won for the fourth time in five games overall. The Yellow Jackets have also won four-straight at home.

Saturday’s heart-stopper featured a whopping 14 ties and 13 lead changes and the score was knotted for nearly 10 of the game’s 45 minutes.

Ndongo and George scored 26 points apiece, while Powell added 19 for the Yellow Jackets in the win.

Ndongo’s 26 points were a career high, and the 6-foot-9 post player also grabbed 13 rebounds, including a game-high eight on the offensive glass. The double-double was the fourth in the last five games, eighth of the season and 13^th of the sophomore’s career.

George recorded his fourth-straight 20-point game, and also dished out a game-high eight assists.

In addition to scoring 71 of the Jackets’ 90 points, George (45), Powell (43) and Ndongo (39) also combined to play 127 minutes, as Georgia Tech continues to utilize just seven players with key contributors Javian McCollum, Luke O’Brien and Kowacie Reeves still out due to injury. Returning from missing Wednesday’s win over Stanford due to injury, Lance Terry also played 39 minutes and scored nine points.

As a team, Tech shot a white-hot 55% from 3-point range (11-of-20), by far its highest percentage in conference game this season (prev.: 47.1% vs. Notre Dame on Dec. 31). The Jackets hit the 90-point mark for the fifth time this season.

Atlanta-area native Jeremiah Wilkinson led Cal (12-14, 5-10) with 25 points.

Georgia Tech has a week off before returning to action next Saturday at Boston College. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. on the ACC Network.

Baye Ndongo (11) has four double-doubles in his last 5 games. (photo by Danny Karnik)

 

POST-GAME NOTES

• Tech is now alone in 8^th place in the ACC standings, in position for a first-round bye in the ACC Tournament if the tournament were to begin today. The Jackets have also matched their ACC win total from 2023-24.
• Tech has won four of its last five games, five of its last seven.
• Tech is 12-5 on its home court after beginning the season 2-3.
• Tech has won four-straight ACC games at home, the first time the Jackets have accomplished that since late in the 2019-20 season.
• Tech is the only ACC team to defeat both Clemson and Louisville, the teams tied for 2^nd place in the standings, this season. The Jackets stopped a 10-game winning streak by Louisville, which has gone on to win three-straight since, and stopped a 6-game win streak by Clemson, which responded by defeating Duke and North Carolina and has won three-straight since.
• Tech is 2-0 in overtime games this season.
• Eight of Tech’s 15 ACC games this season have been decided by single digits, including 6 of the last 7 (71-64 win over Virginia Tech, 71-68 loss at Notre Dame, 77-70 win over Louisville, 89-86 win over Clemson, 60-52 win over Stanford, 90-88 win over Cal).
• Tech set season highs for ACC games in 3-point field goals and 3-point percentage (11-for-20) against California.
• Tech hit better than 50 percent from the floor in an ACC game for the third time this season, and matched a season-high for field goals in a conference game (35).
• Naithan George has scored in double digits in 13 straight games, and 20-plus in his last four, after tallying a game-high 26 points against California. The 6-3 sophomore has averaged 24 points (34-of-73 FG, 15-of-31 3pt FG, 13-of-16 FT) over that stretch, along with 5.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists.
• Baye Ndongo has 4 double-doubles in Tech’s last 5 games after scoring a career-high 26 points with 13 rebounds against Cal. The 6-9 sophomore has averaged 17.2 points (36-of-63 FG) and 11.6 rebounds over the last 5 games.
• Ndongo has 8 double-doubles this season (14 for his career), 6 of those against ACC teams – 26/13 vs. Cal, 15/16 vs. Stanford, 18/13 at Clemson (2/4), 12/11 vs. Louisville, 14/12 vs. Clemson (1/14) and 19/12 at North Carolina (12/7).

Naithan George (1) has scored 20 or more points in four straight games. (photo by Danny Karnik)

 

GAME HIGHLIGHTS

POST-GAME PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO