HOOPS Preview: Notre Dame At Georgia Tech

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NOTRE DAME (13-3, 3-0 ACC) VS. GEORGIA TECH (8-7, 1-1 ACC)

Where: McCamish Pavilion (Atlanta)

Rankings: Both teams enter the matchup unranked.

Time/TV: 7 p.m. ET/ESPNU

Last Meeting: Notre Dame 68-59 on Dec. 30, 2017.

Series Info: Georgia Tech leads the all-time series 9-8.

Notre Dame and Georgia Tech will finish their regular season series this evening when the Irish travel to Atlanta to take on the pesky Yellow Jackets.

In the first contest, the Irish used a strong second half to pull out a 68-59 win to open ACC play.

Both teams enter this evening with some momentum after Notre Dame picked up two gutsy wins shorthanded while Georgia Tech knocked off Miami (Fla.) at home.

Blue & Gold Illustrated takes a look at each team heading into tonight and a prediction of the game’s outcome.

Notre Dame found a way to win last Saturday at Syracuse despite being without injured senior leaders Bonzie Colson and Matt Farrell.

Junior guard Rex Pflueger rebounded a missed layup by sophomore guard T.J. Gibbs and connected on an off-balance shot to steal a 51-49 victory versus the Orange in the Carrier Dome.

In victories versus North Carolina State and Syracuse last week, Gibbs averaged 20.0 points per game while Pflueger posted 14.0. The duo will continue to serves as the top two options offensively for head coach Mike Brey’s team, while the third could rotate depending on the given matchups each time out.

Freshman wing D.J. Harvey scored a career-high 17 points in the team’s win over North Carolina State, while junior big man Elijah Burns put up seven points versus Syracuse to be the third leading scorer for the team. Both players have seen their minutes increase since the injuries.

Senior big man Martinas Geben has averaged 7.0 points and 13.5 rebounds over the past two games.

Like Harvey and Burns, sophomore big man John Mooney and senior big man Austin Torres have played a larger role in the rotation for Brey. The same can be said for sophomore guard Nik Djogo, who has played double-digit minutes the previous two games.

Beating Georgia Tech in Atlanta hasn’t happened often for Notre Dame since joining the ACC in 2013-14. The Irish are 1-3 against the Yellow Jackets on the road with the three losses coming by a combined eight points.

Who will step up this time around?

Notre Dame has a couple of tough matchups against the Yellow Jackets, which is explained more below, and will need another gritty effort to pick up its second straight ACC road win.

In the first matchup, Georgia Tech took a 28-23 edge into halftime and seemed to be in control while making life tough for the Notre Dame offense. But the Irish exploded in the second half, scoring 45 points to defeat the Yellow Jackets 68-59 in South Bend.

The second meeting between the two programs has a much different feel given Notre Dame will be without Colson and Farrell.

Star sophomore guard Josh Okogie put up 16 points and seven rebounds to lead head coach Josh Pastner’s team Dec. 30 against Notre Dame. Both freshman guard Jose Alvarado and senior big man Ben Lammers scored 11 points, while Lammers added 12 rebounds and four blocks.

Junior guard Brandon Alston (four points) and senior forward Abdoulave Gueye (two) rounded out the scoring for the starting unit. Senior guard Tadric Jackson notched 15 points in the loss.

Georgia Tech will look to take advantage of the Irish being without their best two players. Lammers, who is averaging 12.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per contest, will likely get a ton of early chances to get going.

Stopping Okogie (20.0 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game) is going to be a tough task with the Irish down a guard. Jackson (13.9 points and 4.5 rebounds per outing) and Alvarado (13.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists per contest) will also look to take advantage of Farrell’s absence.

The freshman trio of guard Curtis Haywood (7.3 points and 3.6 rebounds per game), forward Evan Cole (1.9 points and 1.5 rebounds per outing) and forward Moses Wright (4.1 points and 3.3 rebounds per contest) are other players to watch off the bench. Only Cole played in the first meeting.

Georgia Tech also enters tonight with some momentum after taking down then-No. 15 Miami 64-54 last week in Atlanta. Okogie (30) and Alvarado (12) combined for 42 of the team’s 64 points.

The Yellow Jackets followed it up with a 74-60 non-conference win over Yale.

Can Notre Dame slow down Okogie and Lammers enough?

It’s likely Pflueger will draw the Okogie matchup as the team’s best defender while the quartet of big men Brey has left will try to limit Lammers.

It’s been a group effort so far for the Irish trying to replace Colson and Farrell. That will likely need to continue tonight for Notre Dame to pick up a win in Atlanta which hasn’t been kind to the program in recent years.

Prediction

Notre Dame 64, Georgia Tech 63

The Irish proved me wrong against Syracuse and it’s hard to doubt them at this point. They just find ways to win.

It’s certainly not going to be easy, but the team has stepped up in a big way the last two games with another opportunity tonight.

Notre Dame again pulls out a gritty road win to move to 4-0 in conference play.

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