After a grueling stretch of Atlantic Coast Conference play, Georgia Tech will have some different opposition with Clayton State traveling to Atlanta in a rare matchup between Division I and Division II schools during the regular season.
Georgia Tech (7-10, 1-6) is dead last in the ACC and coming off another home loss to Wake Forest on Wednesday. Michael Devoe scored 22 points, but Georgia Tech turned the ball over 15 times and allowed Wake Forest to go on a 25-7 run that propelled it to an 80-64 win.
The loss was Georgia Tech’s ninth in its past 11 games and third consecutive home loss.
“We’re just not playing well right now,” Georgia Tech head coach Josh Pastner said. “And that’s on me. I’ve got to do a better job. We’re not playing well defensively. I thought we had some great looks offensively; we unfortunately just missed some shots.”
Pastner spent most of the game mixing and matching lineups to find the answer, with 10 different players on the court at least 10 minutes.
“I played a lot of guys,” Pastner said. “I played 10 guys today. I didn’t sub five and five intentionally. I just did that just trying to get good energy and find a way to win a game. But I don’t know if that’s best for our team either, to play that many guys.”
Clayton State (6-8, 1-4 Peach Belt Conference) will also be looking to right the ship on its season. The Lakers have lost four games in a row by an average of 11.3 points per game and five of their past six overall. The latest defeat was an 83-63 loss at USC Aiken. Kobie Johnson led the team with 13 points in 22 minutes.
Clayton State has not played a regular season game against a Division I opponent this season, but it did lose 101-56 at Georgia State in a November exhibition game.
Sunday’s game will be the first meeting between the two programs.
–Field Level Media
