OXFORD — Ben Lammers had 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting and added eight blocked shots, four rebounds, four assists, and four steals Tuesday night to lead the Georgia Tech men’s basketball team to a 74-66 victory against Ole Miss in the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) at The Pavilion at Ole Miss.
“I’m not sure if he was the defensive player of the year in the ACC, but I know he led the league in blocked shots,” Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said of Lammers. “We had a bit of an advantage because we played Saturday while they played Sunday. We had an advantage in the rest standpoint but in the preparation standpoint we didn’t know who we were playing.”
Josh Okogie led the Yellow Jackets (20-15), who were seeded sixth in their bracket, with 26 points and Quinton Stephens had 10 points and seven rebounds.
Georgia Tech will appear in its first semifinals of the NIT in its eighth appearance in the event. It will face the winner of today’s game between Cal State Bakersfield and Texas Arlington on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.
Sebastian Saiz was 8 of 11 from the field and had his third-straight NIT double-double and 23rd of the season with 19 points and 15 rebounds for fifth-seeded Ole Miss (22-14), which beat top-seeded Syracuse in the second round. Terence Davis, who was 7 of 15 from the field, had 15 points and Cullen Neal had 13.
Saiz finished his career as the seventh player in Southeastern Conference history to score 1,000 points, to grab 1,000 rebounds, and to block 100 shots. He is ranked second in rebounds, fifth in blocked shots, fifth in double-doubles, and 23rd in points scored.
But Ole Miss, which hit a season-best 15 3-pointers against Syracuse, was 6 of 28 from 3-point range against Georgia Tech. The Rebels were 12 of 33 from the field (36.4 percent) in the first half. They finished 27 of 68 (39.7 percent).
“I thought the zone made us settle a little bit,” Kennedy said. “Some of it is the zone because at Syracuse we made 15 threes and started falling in love with it. You know the guys that were making them a few days ago were not making them tonight.”
Georgia Tech scored the first four points and never trailed, leading 39-30 at halftime. Two free throws and a layup by Okogie had the Yellow Jackets up 56-42 with 12 minutes, 36 seconds to play. Ole Miss never got closer than four, the last time on a thundering dunk by Davis with 1:39 to play.
Georgia Tech first-year head coach Josh Pastner quickly called a timeout to quiet the home crowd. Okogie then made two free throws as Tech went 6 of 8 from the free-throw line to secure the win.
“We were trying to do too much on our own,” Kennedy said. “We had opportunities, though. We had the game come down to four. We missed a couple point blank looks. It was disappointing when we couldn’t get a shot. We turned it over a couple times down the stretch.”
Pastner, the former head coach at Memphis, credited his team’s execution on offense. The Yellow Jackets had 21 assists on 27 field goals and shot 51.9 percent from the field and 17 of 20 (85 percent) from the free-throw line.
“It was a great win,” Pastner said. “We led from wire to wire, which is not easy to do in a place like this. To be able to do that, and I have talked to our guys about moving from a good team, which we are, to a great team, I believe is we had to get a good road win. That was today.
“We are extremely limited on offense. Our margin for error is zero. But one of the things we hang our hat on is defense. We are one of the five six best defensive teams. If you look at Kenpom, we are one of the best in defensive efficiency in the entire country. We led the ACC, which is the best conference in college basketball. We led in field goal percentage defense in league play, so we hang our hat on defense.”
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