Five observations from Georgia Tech’s win over Florida A&M

Georgia Tech ended its three-game losing streak with a 79-54 win over Florida A&M Sunday at McCamish Pavilion. The Rattlers are not the most fearsome opponent, but they proved a suitable tonic for the Yellow Jackets, who welcomed back guard Josh Okogie to the lineup for the first time this season. Tech improved to 5-4.

Five observations on Tech’s needed win:

A debut to build upon for Okogie

In his first game of the season after a six-game NCAA suspension as well as a finger dislocation and subsequent infection of the same left index finger, guard Josh Okogie was a little off his game in the first half. He got into a flow in the second half. Wearing a light protective wrap on his finger, Okogie scored 19 points on 6 of 13 shooting and was 5 of 6 from the free-throw line.

“I thought he was pretty good for the first game of the season,” coach Josh Pastner said.

Okogie did most of his scoring on drives to the basket, either scoring on layups or getting fouled. Okogie pleased and perhaps surprised with himself by driving hard and into contact, sometimes falling to the floor, with little regard for his finger.

“I thought that was a thing I would have to worry about the whole season as far as, when I’m playing, I’m going to have to always play timid because of my finger,” Okogie said. “But I was glad to be out there getting hit a lot and still be able to keep my head in the game and not worry too much about my finger, and I think that’s going to help me in the long run.”

Okogie had some trouble with his conditioning, not a surprise given that he had been forbidden from doing conditioning work for about three weeks out of a concern for perspiration entering the open wound in his finger and re-infecting it.

“I feel like through the next couples of games, I can get my wind back,” Okogie said.

Big game for Wright 

Freshman forward Moses Wright played his best game of the season, scoring a career-high 19 points (by 13 points) on 8 of 9 shooting. Wright ran the floor well and scored on four dunks, including fast-break alley oops from Jose Alvarado and Okogie. He also had seven rebounds, one shy of his career high.

Wright got his second start of the season Sunday, taking the place of Abdoulaye Gueye at the power forward spot. Pastner has been looking for offensive production from the position, and received it Sunday. Gueye, who had started the first eight games at power forward while also backing up center behind Ben Lammers, has been moved strictly to a backup center role, Pastner said.

Wright was a late signee in last year’s recruiting cycle, the rare ACC prospect who was not rated by the major recruiting services.

He was a relative latecomer to basketball, but has obvious length, quickness and leaping ability, gifts that should help him develop over his career.

“Moses can be a really special player for us,” Okogie said.

Jackets finally put opponent away

A weak spot for Tech to this point has been its inability to build on leads, getting to perhaps a 10-point advantage before giving it back with a string of bad possessions on offense or breakdowns at the defensive end. It happened notably in the loss to Wofford on Dec. 6, and the Jackets were guilty again in the first half, gaining a 17-6 lead through the first 10 possessions of the game before scoring only 18 more points in the final 24 possessions of the half.

However, Tech finally met the challenge Sunday, going on a 19-0 run that extended its lead from 40-29 to 59-29 and safely put the game away. Having Okogie back didn’t hurt, as he accounted for six points.

“I felt like we did a good job of just relaxing and not really realizing or paying attention to the score,” Okogie said. “Because sometimes when you get up like that, you tend to play not to lose. But I feel like we did a good job of just having fun and just moving the ball and doing the same things that got us the lead, and we were able to extend it.”

 Injury sidelines Jackson after strong first half

Guard Tadric Jackson did not play in the second half after spraining his ankle in the first. Jackson was among the more productive players for the Jackets in the first half, with 11 points on 4 of 5 shooting, including 3 of 3 from 3-point range. That followed his 11 of 15 shooting game against Wofford – a significant performance for a player who came into the season with a career shooting percentage of 38.6 percent.

Pastner said he expects Jackson to be able to play against Georgia Tuesday in Athens and would be disappointed if he didn’t.

“It’s his last opportunity to play against Georgia unless we’re playing them in a postseason tournament, so I would hope he would be ready to go and start and be ready to play,” Pastner said.

Tech will likely be without freshman guard Curtis Haywood, who did not play Sunday with a shin injury. Haywood had started seven games this season. Forward Sylvester Ogbonda also did not play with an ankle injury.

Take note of the opponent

The win over Florida A&M might be taken with a grain of salt. The Rattlers are now 1-13 and their only win was over a Division II opponent. They were No. 299 in RPI going into the game. And, even by their standards, they apparently didn’t play well.

“Tech played really well, and we didn’t,” Florida A&M coach Robert McCullum said. “I don’t want to take anything away from them, but I was really disappointed with our effort.”