The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Devoe’s big second half lifts Jackets over Eagles
About midway through the first half of Georgia Tech’s game against Georgia Southern on Friday at Mccamish Pavilion, Yellow Jackets guard Michael Devoe had information he needed to share with coach Josh Pastner.
“He says, ‘Coach, I want to give it a go,’” Pastner said.
Devoe had expected to play against the Eagles after missing the team’s Monday win over Charleston Southern with flu symptoms. But during warmups before the game, Devoe felt light-headed and determined he wouldn’t be able to play. Leaving the court, he returned to the locker room and lay down before coming back to the bench, looking drained.
“Really just wanted to go out there and fight with my brothers and win us a game,” Devoe said. “I saw their energy and stuff and I wanted to go out there and contribute, as well. Just see- ing that, just the passion and love for the game, I wanted to go out there and play.”
Devoe’s efforts were central to Tech’s 61-59 win over the Eagles (4-2) in the team’s sixth all-time meeting and first since January 1998. The Jackets (5-1) were down 14-10 when he checked into the game and later fell behind by as many as 14 points in the first half before an energetic second-half comeback earned them their fifth win in a row. In 30 minutes — Past- ner never took his star guard out after subbing him in at the 10:17 mark of the first half — Devoe scored a game- high 26 points to go with five rebounds, five assists and two steals against four turnovers. He made 5 of 9 3-point tries, continuing an excellent start to his senior season. The ACC’S leading scorer entering the game, Devoe raised his season aver- age to 23.4 points per game while making 56.9% of his field-goal tries.
“I feel pretty good now,” Devoe said. “I think it’s the adrenaline. But before the game, I didn’t feel so well. I didn’t know if I was going to go or not. But again, I saw
teammates fighting, and I just wanted to go out there and help them out.”
Devoe was one of several Jackets players under the weather. Six players, including guard Deivon Smith, were unavailable to play as the team suffers from a flu bug that has spread throughout Tech’s campus.
Pastner, who is also under the effects of the flu and brought a box of tissues to the postgame news confer- ence, had five players available for Wednesday’s practice and only 10 of his 16 players (not counting injured guard Bubba Parham) on hand at practice Thursday.
Tech will try to recover before its sternest test of the season, a Wednesday night home game against Wiscon- sin as part of the Big TEN/ACC Challenge. The Badgers won the prestigious Maui Invitational (played in Las Vegas) earlier this week.