Tech Hoops Finishes Regular Season at Wake ForestTech Hoops Finishes Regular Season at Wake Forest
Men's Basketball

Tech Hoops Finishes Regular Season at Wake Forest

Yellow Jackets and Demon Deacons tip off at 2:15 p.m. EST Saturday in Winston-Salem

GEORGIA TECH (16-14, 10-9 ACC) vs. WAKE FOREST (20-10, 12-7 ACC)

 

THE FLATS – Having locked down a first-round bye in next week’s Atlanta Coast Conference Tournament, Georgia Tech looks to continue building momentum Saturday at 2:15 p.m. with its final regular-season game against Wake Forest at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Tech (16-14, 10-9 ACC) is on a three-game winning streak, finishing its home schedule with decisive wins over NC State (87-62) and Miami (89-74) following a road win over Pittsburgh (73-67) to clinch a top-8 seed in the tournament. The Yellow Jackets have won seven of their last nine games since the start of February, including wins over two of the top three teams in the ACC standings, Louisville (77-70) and Clemson (89-86 in 3 overtimes), early in the month. Tech is looking to notch its third ACC road win Saturday, and also can improve its tournament seed by beating the Demon Deacons.

Wake Forest (20-10, 12-7 ACC), in sixth place in the ACC, also can improve its tournament seed with a win Saturday. The Demon Deacons have dropped four of their last six games, including a 93-70 loss at Duke Monday. Two of the losses came to Florida State and Virginia at home, where Wake is 6-3 in ACC games this season, but Wake also won at SMU, which is one game ahead of them in the ACC standings.

Saturday’s game will be televised live on The CW Network, available in Atlanta on Peachtree TV. Radio coverage is on the Georgia Tech Sports Network by Legends Sports and flagship station 680 the Fan (680 AM/93.7 FM). The Tech broadcast is also available on Sirius XM channel 383 and the SiriusXM app.

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Naithan George (1) is two assists shy of 200 for the season. (photo by Danny Karnik)

 

THE TIP-OFF

  • Georgia Tech clinched a first-round bye in the ACC Tournament and at least a No. 8 seed with its win over Miami. The Yellow Jackets are alone in 8th place in the ACC standings, two games ahead of 9th-place Virginia and Virginia Tech (both 8-11) with one game to play.
  • With a win over Wake Forest, Tech can still catch Stanford (11-8) and earn the No. 7 seed since it also has a tiebreaker over the Cardinal.
  • In next week’s ACC Tournament, the No. 8 seed will play the No. 9 seed at noon Wednesday. The No. 7 seed plays its first game at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
  • Tech’s current 3-game winning streak matches its longest this season. Tech’s longest win streak under Damon Stoudamire is 4 games (during December of 2023).
  • Tech once stood 2-6 in ACC play this season, but has won 5 of its last 6 games, 7 of its last 9 (Feb. 1 to the present), and 8 of its last 11 (Jan. 22 to present).
  • Tech is 3-5 in games vs. Quad 1 teams this season with wins over Louisville on 2/1, Clemson on 2/4 and Pittsburgh on 2/25, and have one more opportunity at Wake Forest Saturday. The Jackets are 7-12 vs. Quad 1 teams under Damon Stoudamire.
  • Tech has its most conference wins since 2020-21 (11-6) and is guaranteed a .500 or better record in league play for the first time since then.
  • Tech is the only ACC team this season to defeat both Clemson and Louisville, the teams tied for 2nd place in the standings. The Jackets stopped a 10-game winning streak by Louisville, which has gone on to win 8-straight since, and stopped a 6-game win streak by Clemson, which responded by defeating Duke and North Carolina and has won 7-straight since.
  • Tech has had five or more players average double figures for a season just three times in its history (six in 1964-65 and five in 1985-86 and 1991-92. This year’s team is likely to become the fourth – Lance Terry (15.4 ppg), Baye Ndongo (13.6), Naithan George (12.5), Javian McCollum (12.2) and Duncan Powell (11.8).
  • The same five Yellow Jackets have averages in double-digits for ACC games only – Terry (15.4), Powell (14.6), Ndongo (14.5), George (13.8) and McCollum (12.9). If it holds, they would be the third quintet to finish an ACC regular season all averaging in double digits (1985-86, 1991-92).
  • Head coach Damon Stoudamire was named a finalist Wednesday for the Ben Jobe Award, which is bestowed annually to the top minority head coach in Division I college basketball.

SERIES NOTES VS. WAKE FOREST

  • Georgia Tech has a 47-43 lead in the all-time series and a 46-41 lead in games played since it became a member of the ACC. That is the best winning percentage that the Yellow Jackets have against any of the pre-2005 expansion members of the conference.
  • Tech has won 12 of the last 18 meetings between the two teams, which split their regular season series in 2023-24, Wake winning 80-51 in Atlanta and Tech winning 70-69 in Winston-Salem.
  • Tech has one of its better records in an opponent’s building, 11-21 in the Joel Coliseum. Tech is 15-28 against Wake Forest on the road, including a 2-3 mark in regular-season games played in Greensboro and a 2-4 mark in games played in Winston-Salem prior to the opening of Joel Coliseum.
  • Tech is 44-32 against Wake Forest since 1985, including 12 straight victories from 1985-91.
  • Demon Deacons’ coach Steve Forbes is 4-3 against the Jackets, having led his East Tennessee State team to a 69-68 victory over the Jackets in Atlanta during his first season with the Buccaneers on Nov. 15, 2015.

 

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Baye Ndongo (11) is one of two players averaging in double figures in both scoring and rebounding in ACC games. (photo by Danny Karnik)

 

TECH BYTES

  • Tech’s 40-point combined margin of victory in its last two games vs. NC State and Miami was its largest in back-to-back games since the 2020-21 season, when the Jackets won back-to-back road games at Miami (87-60) and Virginia Tech (69-53), a combined margin of 43 points.
  • Tech shot 54.5% from the floor against Miami, its fourth ACC game hitting more than 50% this season. The Jackets have shot 50.7% in their last 2 games and scored 176 points.
  • Tech’s scored 1.29 (vs. Miami) and 1.26 points (vs. NC State) per possession in its last two games, the Yellow Jackets’ 2nd- and 3rd-best rates this season and their best efforts in back-to-back games since Dec. 31 vs. Notre Dame (1.34) and Boston College (1.20).
  • Tech scored 48 paint points in each of its last 2 games, and hit 54.8% of its 2-point field goals.
  • During Tech’s current 3-game winning streak, the Yellow Jackets have outshot its opponents 48.1% to 40% from the floor, 39.4% to 28.6% from 3-point range and 84,9% to 72.2% from the foul line. It has out-rebounded opponents by 11.3 per game.
  • Tech has outscored its last 3 opponents 62-16 on second-chance points, pulling 42 offensive rebounds in the 3 games combined.
  • Tech has utilized 9 different starting lineups this season, all a result of injury. Twelve different players have started a game for Tech this season, 11 different players have started an ACC game.
  • Tech has played with 8 scholarship players in each of its last 7 games after Javian McCollum was injured Feb. 4 at Clemson, and its playing rotation has been 6 or 7 for most of its last 13 games dating back to Jan. 14 vs. Clemson, when Lance Terry missed the first of his 3 games. The Jackets beat Louisville with only six players.
  • Sophomores Baye Ndongo and Naithan George are the only Yellow Jackets to have appeared in every game this season. No one else has started more than 22 (Lance Terry), and only three players (George, Ndongo, Terry) have started as many as 20 games.
  • Lance Terry (22.0), Duncan Powell (21.7) and Baye Ndongo (20.7) each have averaged more than 20 points during Tech’s 3-game winning streak. Each have connected on 50% or better of their shots from the floor, and the trio has combined to make 83.3% of their 42 free throw attempts.
  • Terry and Powell have combined to make 43.8% of their 3-point shots during the Yellow Jackets’ 3-game winning streak.
  • Three Tech players (Terry at 2.19, Powell at 2.00 and George at 1.89) rank among the ACC’s top 16 in 3-point field goals per game in ACC play.
  • Lance Terry missed 3 games in Tech’s last 12 while playing through a wrist injury, but has rebounded to average 20.3 points in Tech’s last 4 games. He scored cored 15 at Boston College, 20 at Pittsburgh (14-of-16 from the free throw line) and 15 vs. NC State (3-of-8 on 3-pt FG, 4 reb, 3 ast) in this 4-game stretch, in which he has hit 45% from the floor, 35.2% from 3-point range.
  • Since being held to just 3 points at BC, Duncan Powell has averaged 21.7 points in Tech’s last 3 games (scored 16 vs. Miami), hitting 22-of-40 from the floor, 10-of-20 from 3-point range and 11-of-11 from the free throw line.
  • Naithan George posted his fourth double-double this season in points (10) and assists (11) against Miami, and has logged 10 assists in back-to-back games (had 12 vs. NC State), the first time a Tech player has done that since the 2006-07 season.
  • George has either scored or assisted on nearly half (119 of 250) of Tech’s field goals over the Yellow Jackets’ last 9 games (7-2 record). He has connected on 37.5% of his 3-point attempts, and 86.2% of his free throw tries.

 

Full Steam Ahead

Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.

ABOUT GEORGIA TECH MEN’S BASKETBALL

Georgia Tech’s men’s basketball team is in its second season under head coach Damon Stoudamire. Tech has been a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference since 1979, won four ACC Championships (1985, 1990, 1993, 2021), played in the NCAA Tournament 17 times and played in two Final Fours (1990, 2004). Connect with Georgia Tech Men’s Basketball on social media by liking their Facebook Page, or following on Twitter (@GTMBB) and Instagram. For more information on Tech basketball, visit Ramblinwreck.com.