NC State upset on the road by Georgia Tech
NC State came into Thursday’s road matchup against Georgia Tech on a three-game winning streak coming off a huge victory over No. 7 Notre Dame. The Yellow Jackets handed the visitors their own upset, defending home court and defeating the Wolfpack 68-62.
Even though the Pack led for the majority of the matchup, 21:03 of game time, Georgia Tech forced a few turnovers and grabbed pivotal offensive rebounds that led to the NC State loss. Coming into the game, the Yellow Jackets were 2-8 in the ACC but had won 2 of its past 3 matchups. The hosts caused 14 Pack turnovers and scored 15 points off of those opportunities.
NC State started the first quarter well, jumping out to a 16-8 lead and shooting 57.1 percent in the period, but 5 turnovers hurt the team. Georgia Tech finished the quarter on a 15-2 run to take a 23-18 lead.
Camille Hobby paced NC State in the first with 6 points and finished the game with 12.
A burst of energy from Aziaha James helped NC State start the second quarter strong. She hit an extremely difficult floater to open the scoring before recording a steal on the following possession and finding Madison Hayes for a fastbreak layup. Hayes, who finished the game with a team-leading 10 rebounds, later hit a 3 that helped the Wolfpack build a 12-0 run and take a 7-point advantage.
Georgia Tech rallied from there after hitting its first shot of the quarter with five minutes to go. Following the hot start, NC State scored just three points over those final five minutes, and the Yellow Jackets took a 33-32 lead. Saniya Rivers hit a late free throw that tied the game up going into halftime.
River Baldwin and Hobby led the team with 6 points apiece. Diamond Johnson was only able to play 11 minutes in the half due to foul trouble but still managed to grab 4 rebounds, dish out a pair of assists and score 4 points.
After coming up huge for the Wolfpack in the second half of Sunday’s win over Notre Dame, Johnson put together another fantastic third quarter Thursday night. The junior guard hit back-to-back threes and scored 8 points in the period, leading the Pack with 17 overall.
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Cameron Swartz, a graduate student guard for the Yellow Jackets, hit a three in the final seconds of the third to take a 50-49 lead.
Georgia Tech led for almost the entirety of the fourth quarter. Even though the deficit was never greater than 5 points until the final 30 seconds of the matchup, NC State never built enough momentum to make a run. The Pack turned the ball over 5 times in the period and shot 41.7 percent from the field, which was actually more than 10-percent higher than the Yellow Jackets.
Freshman guard Tonie Morgan was the star of the game for Georgia Tech, scoring a team-leading 17 points to go along with 10 assists and 6 rebounds.
NC State drops to 16-6 on the year and 6-5 in the ACC. No. 13 Virginia Tech travels to Raleigh Monday, Feb. 6, for a 6 p.m. tip off at Reynolds Coliseum.
