Georgia Tech returns to action against Alcorn State

After taking 10 days off, the Georgia Tech basketball team returns to begin a five-game homestand that will lead them into the start of conference play.

The Yellow Jackets (5-3) will get back into action Sunday against Alcorn State (2-6), which hasn’t played itself since Dec. 5. The 2 p.m. game is not televised but can be streamed live on ACC Network Extra and the WatchESPN app.

The Yellow Jackets are coming off their most impressive win of the year, a 73-70 victory at Virginia Commonwealth. Senior Josh Heath provided the late heroics when he hit a 12-footer to break a tie in overtime.

“To win on the road, in the early stages of the rebuilding process, is a huge, huge win,” Georgia Tech head coach Josh Pastner said. “That’s a huge win in year one of a major rebuilding job with the most inexperienced team in all of college basketball.”

Most encouraging in the VCU game was the play of Tadric Jackson, who came off the bench and scored 19 of his career-high 24 points in the second half. The outburst came after Jackson had totaled 12 points in the three previous games and scored only two against Tennessee.

“He had the best practices of his career, and that’s why he played like he did,” Pastner said. “How you practice is how you play.”

Jackson, who was Mr. Georgia Basketball in 2013, has been fighting through a hamstring injury. He’s averaging 12.6 points, third-best on the team, and 2.3 rebounds.

“Tadric is good enough to be an All-ACC player,” Pastner said. “He’s talented enough. He’s a high-level, talented guy. I love him and I see the goodness in him, but I’m going to demand he meets my standards.”

Alcorn State (2-6) has lost four straight games and is 0-6 on the road. The Braves were beaten 98-65 by Louisiana Tech in its previous start, with junior Reginald Johnson scoring a career-high 25 points. Johnson, a 6-foot-5 junior forward, is the team’s sixth man but is the leading scorer at 14.6 points per game.

Alcorn State also has 6-7 Marquis Vance (12.8 points) and guard Denzel Dulin (10.9).

The Braves have five Georgians on their team: A.J. Mosby of Cartersville, Avery Patterson of Wheeler, Juwan Henderson of Stephenson, Kobe Wilson of North Cobb Christian and Devon Brewer of Hiram. Mosby has started all eight games and averages 6.0 points.

Georgia Tech is 2-0 against Alcorn State. The most recent game was 1989 and produced an 88-63 Georgia Tech victory. The Yellow Jackets are 16-1 against teams from the Southwest Athletic Conference.

“We’ve got to be real sharp in our execution,” Pastner said. “They play a lot of guys and we’ll have to be really solid in all our execution, especially on defense because they do a lot of things we haven’t seen.”

Georgia Tech will continue the homestand with a game against Georgia on Tuesday, Wofford on Thursday and North Carolina A&T on Dec. 28. The Yellow Jackets open their ACC schedule against North Carolina at noon on Dec. 31.

This story was originally published December 17, 2016 at 2:30 PM with the headline "Georgia Tech returns to action against Alcorn State."