Florida State looks to continue dominance of Georgia Tech

ATLANTA -- Here's your Georgia Tech trivia quiz for today: What ACC program holds the longest current winning streak against the Yellow Jackets?

It has to be Duke or North Carolina, right?

Wrong.

The opponent that has dominated Georgia Tech longer than any current program is Florida State. The Seminoles, who host the Yellow Jackets on Wednesday night, have won the past 11 meetings between the two teams.

Georgia Tech's last win against Florida State came on Feb. 13, 2007. Marcus Georges-Hunt was 13 years old at the time.

"They're very difficult with their length and athletic ability and ability to score," Georgia Tech head coach Brian Gregory said.

The Yellow Jackets (13-12, 3-9 ACC) have not been playing with the same offensive efficiency of late that they enjoyed earlier in the season. They matched a season low for points in a 66-52 loss at Clemson and scored just six points in the final eight minutes. Gregory said it's time to refocus on scoring points.

"We've shored up some of the areas we've talked about (on defense) and need to get back offensively to finish some plays around the basket and take care of the basketball," Gregory said. "Those are two areas we were not ourselves last week, as far as overall turnovers."

The Yellow Jackets have had double-digit turnovers the past three games. The 13 turnovers against Clemson led to 17 points. The Yellow Jackets have had 10 or more turnovers in five of the past seven games.

Georgia Tech is also struggling from the perimeter, going 1-for-11 on 3-pointers against Clemson, 2-for-10 against Wake Forest and 2-for-19 against Duke.

The bright spot has been the resurgence of forward Charles Mitchell, who has put together back-to-back double-doubles and has 14 this season. The senior went for 11 points and a career-high 19 rebounds against Clemson.

"That was the old Charles," Gregory said. "The one thing that he did last week was he just played at a different energy level and didn't let a missed shot or a mistake impact the next three or four minutes. He just really competed -- he competed on every single play.

"He kind of broke out of the slump he was in. Now the next step is to have some conversions on some of those plays. He can make a better decision here and there offensively when he gets the ball in the post. That competitive level he played at last week was much-needed."

The Yellow Jackets desperately need Adam Smith to return to form. The senior is only 4-for-19 from the field in the past two games. He scored 12 against Clemson, but six of those came at the free-throw line.

Georgia Tech likely will need as many points as it can muster against motivated team like Florida State. The Seminoles (16-9, 6-7) are on the NCAA bubble and have lost two straight games.

Head coach Leonard Hamilton's team is averaging 78.1 points, with freshman Malik Beasley (16.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, freshman Dwayne Bacon (15.7 points, 5.7 rebounds) and sophomore Xavier Rathan-Mays (11.7) all in double figures.

Beasley is a 6-foot-5 guard who played at St. Francis in Alpharetta. Jones County product Jarquez Smith, a 6-9 junior, has played in every game and averages 4.1 points and 3.0 rebounds. Smith had 15 points and six rebounds in last year's win over Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

"We have to do what we do and the three times offensively are to score in the open court, take care of the basketball and we need to rebound the ball and get some second-chance opportunities," Gregory said. "Defensively, they have changed it up at times and have gone with just one post player and four perimeter players and really force your defense to guard on multiple spots and guard a stretch offense."

This story was originally published February 16, 2016 at 5:38 PM with the headline "Florida State looks to continue dominance of Georgia Tech ."