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Turnovers and poor shooting doom Wake in Forbes ACC debut

ATLANTA- Georgia Tech swarmed a short-handed Wake Forest team on Sunday night in McCamish Pavilion with a 70-54 win. The Deacs struggled with turnovers and the Jackets' cashed in to move to 2-1 in ACC play on the year and 2-0 at home. For Wake, this was just the fourth game of the season after COVID-issues shut the program down for nearly the entirety of December. Wake fell to 2-2 on the year. Tech moved to 6-3 on the season.

"Coach (Steve) Forbes is one of the best coaches in the game and his record shows that at East Tennessee State and in the junior college ranks. They are a good basketball team and they've been hit hard by COVID. For Georgia Tech it was a good win, we held them to 15-percent from three and zero threes in the second half. We had nine turnovers in the first half and just four in the second half. We forced 18 turnovers and had 11 steals," Tech head coach Josh Pastner said after the game. "Anytime you get an ACC win it is special."

Tech's defense held Wake Forest to hit just three of their 20 three-point attempts (15%) while the Jackets cashed on nine of 26 from the arc (35%). The Deacs had 18 turnovers in the game while Tech had 14.

Forbes was impressed with Tech's veteran backcourt of two seniors and a junior.

"They got like 24 points off turnovers. They have a veteran team," he said. "And they play like they trust each other, they can take you deep into a shot clock making guard long possessions, and then get good shots. Obviously, the zone game has a lot of problems and we went over three for 20 from three, and it's gonna be hard for us to win when we go three from 20 from three."

Tech guards Jose Alvarado and Mike Devoe corner Daivien Williams
Tech guards Jose Alvarado and Mike Devoe corner Daivien Williams (Curtis Compton/ACC Media Services)

Senior Tech point guard Jose Alvarado led all scorers with 25 points on nine of 14 shooting with four rebounds, two assists, and zero turnovers. He scored 12 of the 14 points in the second half salvo that put the game away for the Jackets.

"It felt good and my teammates were giving me open looks and I was knocking them down," Alvarado said. "I give (my teammates) credit because I can't do it by myself and we were just doing our offense."

Jacket junior guard Mike Devoe added 17 points with 14 of those coming in the first half as the only other double-digit scorer. Jordan Usher for Tech had just one point, but was very effective on the defensive end with eight defensive rebounds, four blocks and a steal plus four assists on the offensive end in 31 minutes as the Jackets' Swiss Army knife.

Isaiah Mucius led the Deacs with 21 points and five rebounds, but he was one for four from three and hit just two of his four free throw attempts.

"I'm going to try to win, like, we haven't played in over a month," Mucius said after the game. "First ACC road game, I'm one of the veteran guys that has played multiple ACC games, I played in every single venue. I played every single team home and away, so I just tried to do everything I could to win the game. No we did not have the outcome we wanted, but I think the guys fought hard after being out for about a month and a half."

Freshman point guard

Carter Whitt was one of the few bright spots for Wake as the mid-year enrollee had six points in 23 minutes and five rebounds in his ACC debut and just second collegiate game. Alvarado was impressed with Whitt's play during the game.

"He's pretty good," Tech's senior guard said of Whitt. "I'll give him credit coming straight from high school and going straight into the ACC on the court and competing. I hope everything goes well and I'm pretty sure he do good in this league."

Georgia Tech opened up a 25-point lead on a pair of three-point plays by Jose Alvarado on a three-point basket and a layup and foul on a fast break at 50-25 with 15:59 left in the game. They never looked back.

Jacobi Neath fouled out with 4:30 left on an offensive foul he had just seven points with six turnovers and two assists in 26 minutes.

"We played Jacobi at the point, we play Daivien at the point some, and we play Carter at the point and that's what 12 turnovers, half of them. So it's hard to win that way and those a lot of those turnovers lead to what I call atomic bombs, which is layups and they have, you know, they're just unguardable," Forbes said.

Georgia Tech lead 35-21 at the half behind 47-percent shooting from three. Isaiah Mucius led Wake with 11 points at the break and 4 rebounds. Mike Devoe led all scorers at the break with 14 points including four three-pointers on six attempts. Wake turned the ball over 11 times in the first half.

"I was getting open looks and setting my feet right and knocking them down. I got some good looks from my teammates," Devoe said of his first-half performance.

Tech emptied the bench with two minutes left with Saba Gigiberia, Rodney Howard and David Didenko all-seeing late minutes. Kyle Sturdivant played a bigger role off the bench with seven points in 11 minutes.

Freshman Georgia Tech guard Tristan Maxwell was not available on Sunday. Pastner said his surgically repaired foot was sore in shootarounds so they put him in a boot as a precaution. Pastner was unsure if he would travel this week for the Jackets' two ACC road trips.

Georgia Tech travels to Notre Dame on Wednesday for the second road test in ACC play at 7 pm. Wake Forest travels to Virginia on Wednesday night for a 9 pm tip.

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