The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Big day for Georgia Tech basketball, football
Okogie’s 26 points power Tech to upset over No. 9 N. Carolina.
The Yellow Jackets men’s basketball team upset No. 9 North Carolina, while the football team downed Kentucky in the Taxslayer Bowl.
After Josh Okogie went for 26 points Saturday, scoring every which way, to lead Georgia Tech to a 75-63 upset of No. 9 North Carolina, it would’ve been easy to look back at comments made a couple of months ago by Tar Heels coach Roy Williams and snicker.
He suggested at the ACC preseason meetings that tough times lay ahead for Tech and first-year coach Josh Pastner.
In Williams’ defense, the Yellow Jackets play defense — their defensive quotient in the RPI ranks No. 33 nationally — although nobody could have foreseen Tech (9-4, 1-0 ACC) throttling one of the nation’s more potent offenses.
Tookie Brown scored 29 points, Ike Smith added 22, and Georgia Southern knocked down seven straight 3-pointers early in the second half to roll to an 88-65 win over visiting Georgia State in the Sun Belt Conference opener Saturday.
Brown hit 6 of 7 shots and scored 15 points as the Eagles (8-6) took a 36-29 lead at the half. Jake Allsmiller opened the second half with a pair of 3s, and Smith followed with two more, pushing the lead to 19 before the Panthers had two free throws. Then it was Mike Hughes with backto-back 3s, and Brown had another as the run reached 31-8 and the lead was 67-37 with 12:30 to play.
Georgia Southern made 8 of 16 behind the arc in the second half as it shot 59 percent and hit 16 of 23 free throws. The Eagles got 23 points off 22 turnovers.
Georgia State (7-6) shot 33 percent as Jeremy Hollowell had 21 points, his sixth time reaching 20 this season, and Jordan Session had a careerhigh 13 rebounds.
(At) Kennesaw State 89, North Georgia 76: Nick Masterson scored 19 points, Kendrick Ray had 18 to top 1,000 career points, and Kennesaw State beat Division II North Georgia.
Masterson hit all five of his 3-point attempts, and Ray made a first-half jumper to give him 11 points and 1,001 for his career. Ray also had six rebounds and five assists.
Kennesaw State took a 67-55 lead after scoring on three straight possessions.
(At) Wofford 88, Mercer 71: Eric Garcia made all 16 of his free-throw attempts and scored a career-high 31 points to help Wofford beat Mercer in a Southern Conference opener.