Georgia Tech Falls To Maryland 77-61 In First Game Of Conference Play

Jan 4, 2014; College Park, MD, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets guard Trae Golden (23) attempts a free throw against the Maryland Terrapins at Comcast Center. Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports

The Georgia Tech basketball team opened their ACC conference play at Maryland in rather disappointing fashion.

The Terrapins were all over the Jackets defensively and limited Georgia Tech to just a 38.3 field goal percentage and won handily, 77-61. The Jackets were led by Marcus Georges-Hunt offensively, but he only managed to score 11 points. Whenever your leading scorer is putting up just eleven, you know it wasn’t a good offensive game.

The only other Yellow Jacket players to score in the double-digits were Trae Golden (4-12, 11 points) and Quinton Stephens (3-5, 10 points). Stephens came off of the bench and provided 19 quality minutes, shooting 2-3 from behind the arc, 2-2 from the free throw line, and also grabbing six rebounds.

With Robert Carter Jr. out of the game, Tech was already off-balance offensively, and no one stepped up to fill his role. The team struggled in almost every area of the game. In addition to their poor field goal percentage, the Jackets shot just 26.3 percent (5-19) from three-point range and also shot a mediocre 66.7 percent (10-15) from the free throw line. They also turned the ball over 11 times, compared to Maryland’s six.

The only bright spot in this one for Tech was the rebounding, where they beat the Terrapins 36-34. This is really a bit of a surprise considering they were without their best rebounding player (Carter Jr.).

It was an ugly game for the Jackets, and with Maryland being just an average team in the Atlantic Coast Conference, it might be a while before things get any better. Cross your fingers for a quick return from Carter Jr.