Dec. 28, 2011
Complete game notes
Coach Gregory Interview
ATLANTA – Becoming the first Atlantic Coast Conference team to play a game on Fordham’s campus in 47 years, Georgia Tech resumes its 2011-12 schedule with an 8 p.m. game against the Rams Thursday night at Rose Hill Gym.
The game will be televised nationally on the CBS Sports Network (formerly CBS College Sports), and the Tech radio broadcast can be heard in Atlanta on flagship station 790 the Zone (790 AM) and True Oldies 106.7 FM, and the Fordham broadcast can be heard nationally on Sirius satellite radio channel 138.
Tech (7-5), in its first year under head coach Brian Gregory, is looking to shake off a 65-59 loss to Mercer in its last outing on Dec. 22, the last of five games at the Arena at Gwinnett Center. Prior to that, the Yellow Jackets had won three straight, two of those on the road.
Tech has won two of three games on opponents’ home floors this season, including a 68-56 win at Georgia on Dec. 7 and a 65-45 win at Savannah State three days later.
Thursday’s game is the second of three straight at home for Fordham (5-6), which defeated Texas State, 81-70, in its last outing on Dec. 22. The Rams are 4-1 at home this season, losing only to Lehigh (78-60) on Dec. 1.
The Rams and Yellow Jackets have one common opponent – Siena. Tech defeated the Saints, 72-44, at home on Nov. 23, and Fordham took a 74-59 road win against Siena on Dec. 12.
Following Thursday’s game, Tech closes out its non-conference schedule with a game against Alabama on Jan. 3, the first of nine home games the Yellow Jackets will play at Philips Arena.
Tech continues to play solid defense during the non-conference portion of its season. The Yellow Jackets rank second in the ACC in field goal percentage defense (36.4 pct.) and are third (26th nationally) in scoring defense (57.8 ppg). Tech has held nine of its 12 opponents under 40 percent from the field, and only four teams have score 60 points or more against the Yellow Jackets.
Offensively, Tech is averaging 64.9 points a game, 10th in the ACC, and hitting 45.9 percent of its field goal tries (5th). The Yellow Jackets have shot 50 percent or better from the floor six times, including two of the last four games.
Two Yellow Jackets are averaging double figures in scoring, led by 6-5 junior Glen Rice, Jr., of Marietta, Ga., who is scoring 14.7 points per game and and grabbing 7.4 rebounds per game, ninth in the ACC in both categories. Mfon Udofia, a 6-2 junior from Stone Mountain, Ga., averages 10.9 points per game.
Tech and Fordham History
• Georgia Tech and Fordham are meeting in basketball for the third time overall and for the first time since 1990, when the teams met twice in that calendar year.
• Tech won both previous meetings, the first on Feb. 15, 1990 at Madison Square Garden (83-78) and the second on Dec. 8 of that year at Alexander Memorial Coliseum (92-72).
• Tech will be only the third Atlantic Coast Conference team ever to visit Fordham’s Rose Hill Gym, and the first since Dec. 17, 1964, when NC State escaped with a 65-64 win. Maryland captured a 61-58 victory over the Rams at Rose Hill on Dec. 7, 1957.
• The Rams were scheduled to visit Tech last Dec. 27, but a snowstorm that ravaged the mid-Atlanta and Northeastern United State prevented them from leaving new York for the game. That game will be made up next season.
• Fordham is Tech’s second opponent from the Atlantic 10 Conference this season. The Yellow Jackets lost to Saint Joseph’s on N17 and are now 30-20 against the current A10 membership.
