Georgia Tech will look to ride the hot shooting of Kowacie Reeves Jr. and continue its recent success from the perimeter on Saturday when they host Lafayette in a nonconference game in Atlanta.
The Yellow Jackets (7-4) fell just shy of a single-game school record in Tuesday’s 87-76 win over Marist, making 8 of 11 3-pointers (72.7%) from the floor. The record of 77.8% has happened three times, most recently in 1991 against Texas.
The effort was more impressive since Marist entered the game as No. 6 nationally in 3-point field goal defense (25.2%).
“The reality of it is, is that we made shots,” Georgia Tech coach Damon Stoudamire said. “And so I’ve been saying for a long time, it’s a make or miss game, and when you make shots, it takes pressure off for you.”
The shooting performance was more impressive considering the Yellow Jackets had not played in 10 days.
“Now we’re back to a rather regular rhythm,” Stoudamire said. “But, you know, we had 10 days off. They called it ‘Camp Stoudamire,’ you know. I’ll take it. If we can play like this after 10 days off, you know, I’ll take it, if we can just keep our trajectory going in the right direction.”
Reeves had three 3-pointers and finished with 21 points, topping the 20-point mark for the third straight game. His is shooting 42.2% from 3-point range and averaging a team-leading 15.4 points.
The 3-point success offers a big obstacle for Lafayette (3-9), which allowed 17 3-pointers (in 31 attempts) in Thursday’s 81-67 loss at Charlotte. The Leopards are allowing opponents to shoot 34.3% on 3-pointers.
Lafayette is led by the one-two punch of Caleb Williams (16.9 points) and Andrew Phillips (14.9). Phillips led the team with 16 points against Charlotte.
“The mindset for all of us is just to try and improve from what we’ve had weeks past and games past,” senior Ryan Pettit said.
Georgia Tech is 7-1 at home, the best start at McCamish Pavilion since going 8-1 to start the 2015-16 season. Lafayette is 0-6 on the road, including blowout losses at Texas and West Virginia.
–Field Level Media
