Jarrett Jack once again was amazing for Georgia Tech, an automatic threat Saturday whether wide-open or being wrestled to the floor while taking a shot.
But after his 26-point outing — the second time he has taken Kansas University’s men’s basketball team to task in the last nine months — the Yellow Jacket point guard still found little positive in KU’s 70-68 overtime victory at a thundering Allen Fieldhouse.
“They’re probably the grittiest team we’ll ever play,” Jack said of the Jayhawks. “They didn’t put their head down when we jumped on them early. They stayed and fought tough.”
KU had to, of course, if it wanted any chance at topping the talented Yellow Jackets, led by captain Jack at the point. The junior torched the Jayhawks for 29 points in an NCAA Tournament regional final last season, and he returned Saturday with an equally impressive performance — 10-of-12 shooting, perfect 4-for-4 from the free-throw line, five rebounds, three assists and two steals to go with his 26 points.
Jack averaged just 13.1 points per game going into Saturday’s game, but with Tech’s leading scorer, B.J. Elder, lost in the first half because of a strained left hamstring, Jack, Will Bynum and Anthony Morrow were forced to step up offensively.
They did, but KU stepped up higher, nailing 12 three-pointers and erasing a 16-point first-half deficit to squeak out the win.
“I just took things as they presented themselves,” Jack said. “I wasn’t trying to force anything, because I think that’s how you get your offensive rhythm going.”
Georgia Tech (9-2) never trailed in regulation and led 65-61 midway through the overtime. But Jack never shot the ball again after drilling a two-pointer with 2:11 left in regulation. Perhaps it was no coincidence that Tech never had a back-breaking bucket after that, either.
“We saw that Kansas was paying more attention to him, so we wanted to go inside,” coach Paul Hewitt said. “You can talk about Jarrett not getting his shot at times, but I would take a layup as opposed to a highly contested shot in the lane any time.”
It was logical, but it didn’t pay off for Tech on Saturday.
“I had faith in my teammates, and I thought we were going to pull it out,” Anthony McHenry said. “We just got the short end of the stick this time.”
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