When you come to McCamish Pavilion the week after finals to see Georgia Tech play a non-power opponent in the swell of holiday party season, it never hurts to trot out your ACC Player of the Year quarterback (Haynes King, in this case) to do some autographs and help boost attendance.
It also helps that the men’s basketball team played their most well rounded game of the season after what has been a very uninspiring 6-4 start to the season. Plus, they did it without regulars Baye Ndongo or Jaeden Mustaf.
That’s what this Tuesday night brought us as Tech Men’s Basketball recorded one of their better wins of the season thus far, beating Marist 87-76. It’s the most points Marist had allowed all season after coming in as the 44th best defense per Bart Torvik’s ratings.
Tech’s Kowacie Reeves, Jr. led all players with 21 points on 50% shooting plus 10 rebounds to get the double-double. Mouhamed Sylla shot 7-10 with 14 points.
Tech had a remarkable three point shooting night going 8-11. With under a minute to go, Tech was 8-10 before Reeves missed Tech’s final field goal attempt of the game. Had he not shot it at all, Tech would’ve finished at 80% and set the school record for 3PT shooting percentage in a single game. Nonetheless, it was the highest 3PT% the team had shot since 1991.
The Game
The Jackets came into tonight at 6-4, a win over Marist giving them a potential decent win given the quality of schedule played thus far.
There was minimal separation for most of the first half with Marist leading for 7:35 of the half. Down 35-34, Chas Kelley III hit a three to put Tech in the lead, kickstarting an 8-0 run to give Tech a 44-36 lead going into halftime. Mouhamed Sylla was Tech’s leading scorer at that point with 12 points and five rebounds to boot.
Tech’s second half was a continuation of the end of the first. A 12-0 run to go up 61-43 put Marist at more than an arm’s length for the rest of the game. Tech’s biggest lead reached 23 points midway through the second up 78-55. From there, it was pure cruise control exactly in the way you’d want to see.
Haynes King
King spent over an hour before and bleeding into the beginning part of the game signing autographs for fans. He was scheduled to only sign for 30 minutes but made sure every fan in line got a signature. King was presented his ACC Player of the Year trophy in a short halftime ceremony which included remarks from
In a media scrum after the ceremony, King noted that he was surprised and very delighted when he got the call from Coach Key that he won the award. Kowacie Reeves noted after the game that the energy King helped bring to the crowd was helpful factor in creating a great environment for the evening.
