Tech reeling without Alvarado

Injured point guard sorely missed at both ends of flfloor.

Georgia Techtasted defeat for the ninth time in the past 10 games, this time to Virginia Tech by a 76-56 score at McCamish Pavilion on Saturday.

After a hot start, the Yellow Jackets were overtaken and subdued by the Hokies, who led by as many as 35 points before relenting. Georgia Tech (11-16 overall, 4-10 ACC) is now assured of a losing record at the end of the regular season. Virginia Tech (19-8, 8-6) has now won four games in a row in the series with the Yellow Jackets.

Some observations: When the game was lost: Given rare playing time, backupcenter Sylvester Ogbonda made a jump hook to cut Virginia Tech’s lead to 25-23 with 9:30 remaining in the fifirst half. For the remainder of the half, though, the Jackets could scarcely get out of their own way. Without point guard Jose Alvarado (out for the season with an elbow dislocation and fracture) andwith only one consistent scorer on the flfloor ( guard Josh Okogie), the offffffffffffense was disjointed, stringing together possessions in which the Jackets turned the ball over or failed to create open shots.

After Ogbonda’s basket,

Tech had 14 more possessions before the end of the half. Tech scored three times, on a tip- in by forward Moses Wright, a jump shot by forward Evan Cole and a dunk by Okogie. The Jackets missed the other 11 shots, which is to say they were 1-for-12 on shots that were taken beyond inches of the goal, and that isn’t entirely accurate because they actually missed two other tip- ins. Five possessions were squandered with turnovers, some of them egregious misplays with the ball.

The misses and turnovers led to at least three Virginia Tech baskets scored in transition as the Hokies stretched the lead from 25-23 to 43-29 at the half. Given the way Georgia Tech was struggling to score, it effffffffffffectively put the game out of reach. Tech is 1-11 this season when trailing at the half.

Defense lacking again: One of the top defenses in Division I last year, Georgia Tech continues to be shredded defensively. Coach Josh Pastner made the decision again to be aggressive on the offffffffffffensive glass, which produced 14 offffffffffffensive rebounds (against Virginia Tech’s 23 defensive rebounds) and 17 second-chance points, but also left the Jackets vulnerable in transition defense. The Hokies were credited with 24 fast-break points, the season high for a Georgia Tech opponent and well above the Jackets’ACCrate of 7.9 fast-break points allowed per game.

“We just aren’t getting it done on the defensive end, bottom line, and (Saturday) was no difference,” Pastner said.

Pastner suggested that, because of the number of inexperienced players in the rotation, he may stick to one defense, rather than use the mix of schemes that was highly successful for the Jackets last season.

The Jackets’ problems hardly ended with faulty transition defense. The Hokies worked the ball in the half-court to produce wide-open 3-pointers and exploit breakdowns in Georgia Tech’s defense that left players open at the basket for easy layups. Virginia Tech’s 21 assists (on 28 baskets) were its season high in ACC play.

Roughstart at the point: The transition to the point has not been a smooth one for Okogie. In two games in place of Alvarado, out since his elbow injury against Duke last Sunday, Okogie has shot 7-for-27 (including 0-for-12 from3-point range) and has an assist/turnover ratio of 2/7. Thanks to effffffffffffective work from the free-throw line (a combined 16-for-18), he has still scored 30 points.

Prior to the past two games, Okogie was shooting 43.8 percent fromthe fifield, 41.2 percent from 3-point range, hadan assist/turnover ratio of 40/38 and was averaging 19.1 points per game.

“But part of it is, you’re asking Josh to do a lot,” Pastner said. “You’re asking him to be your point guard, 2- guard, 3- guard pretty much. And go to the offffffffffffensive glass.”

The twogames havemade clear the value that Alvarado brought to the team at both ends of the flfloor.

“Losing Jose, I can’t put enough emphasis on how big of a loss it is for us,” Pastner said.

Victory for littlebrother: Playing against his brother Tyrie (a redshirt freshman guard for Virginia Tech) and in front of busloads of family and friends from Tift County, Tadric Jackson had an inspired start. Jackson made his first four shots, including three from3-point range, that helped give Georgia Tech a 14-8 lead at the 16: 12 mark. The last of the four baskets was particularly eye-catching, a stepback baseline jumper from just inside the arc.

He had a rough time after that, making two of his fifinal 13 field-goal attempts and missing his last six 3-point tries. He fifinished with a teamhigh 17 points. Tyrie had six points, got the victory over his older brother and shared a warm hug with him in the handshake line after the game. It was not such a happy reunion for Tadric.

“At the end of the day, we lost,” he said.