Georgia Tech Basketball: Jackets come up just short in season opener against UCLA

By Dylan Callaghan-Croley | Nov 11, 2017

ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 07: A general view of the tipoff of the Louisville Cardinals' basketball game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets during the game at Hank McCamish Pavilion on January 7, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Comer/Getty Images) /

The Georgia Tech basketball team came up just short in their season opener against UCLA, losing 63-60.

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets opened up their 2017-18 campaign on Friday night (Saturday afternoon local time) against UCLA in Shanghai, China. Unfortunately for the Yellow Jackets, they will take the long plane ride home after being dealt a 63-60 loss from UCLA.

The Jackets entering their second season under head coach Josh Pastner were in the game from start to finish, their largest deficit being 10-points in the second half. When considering they were without star sophomore guard Josh Okogie and senior guard Tadric Jackson, the Jackets performance on Saturday was a valiant effort.

The star of the show in the exciting back-and-forth game was Jackets’ senior center, Ben Lammers. The Texas native was virtually unstoppable in the first half, scoring 18-points on 8-for-8 shooting. Thanks to Lammers, the Jackets were only down 35-32 at halftime despite Lammers making up 56% of the Jackets first-half points.

In the second half, Lammers was not as dominant, scoring just six points on ten shots. Overall, Lammers finished with a double-double scoring 24 points and bringing down 10 rebounds. Outside of Lammers, freshman point guard Jose Alvarado and graduate transfer Brandon Alston were the stars of the show offensively.

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Alvarado had a solid collegiate debut scoring 12-points while dishing out three assists and bringing down seven rebounds. The former three-star prospect also made two clutch three-pointers in the second half, including one to put the Jackets within two in the final 20-seconds.

Alston, a former Lehigh Mountain Hawk had a pretty strong debut as Yellow Jacket, scoring 10-points. Overall, five players made their debuts as Yellow Jackets including four freshmen. Guard Corey Heyward II provided five points while forward Evan Cole provided six points. Freshman forward Moses Wright got his first career start but failed to score any points.

Defensively for the Yellow Jackets, UCLA was too much to handle as four Bruins ended up with double-digit efforts. Freshmen Jaylen Hand and Kris Wilkes were the Bruins offensive leaders, scoring 18 and 14 points respectively. Wilkes was especially deadly for UCLA, shooting 4-for-6 from beyond the arch. Senior guard Aaron Holiday and senior center Thomas Walsh contributed 11 and 10 points respectively.

Despite the loss, the Yellow Jackets should come back from China with great confidence. Without two of their top scorers, the Jackets were able to hang and compete against a top-25 team throughout an entire game. They were able to find enough offense from a rather young and inexperienced rotation of players.

Alvarado exceeded all expectations in the loss while the rest of the freshman each showed flashes of what they can bring to the Jackets in the future. Lammers did not seem to mind being the goto man on the offense while Alston looked much better than advertised and could be a great piece for the Jackets going forward.

As a whole, the Jackets saw improvements in areas they were weak in last year but some weaknesses still remain. The biggest improvement that was seen against UCLA was the Jackets shooting at the free-throw line. After being one of the worst teams from the line last season, the Jackets shot 16-for-20 from the charity stripe. The Jackets also were able to force more turnovers than they gave away which is a good sign for a team that struggled last season when it came to turnovers.

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The biggest weakness that appears to still remain is the Jackets ability to shoot from beyond the arch. Against UCLA, the Jackets made 22.8% of their shots, shooting 4-for-18. That being said, it was the first game of the season and there is still a ton of time to improve their game.

Overall, the Jackets performance against UCLA comes down to much more than wins and losses. When considering the Jackets were down Okogie and Jackson, losing to a top-25 team by just three points is pretty impressive. The young core of players showed their potential and all look like future consistent contributors to the program.

Yes, there is still work to do but if the Jacket can play like they did against UCLA throughout the season, there is no doubt that they can make a run at the NCAA Tournament.