Georgia Tech and DePaul each will have a chance to earn its first power-conference win of the season on Friday night when the teams square off in the Emerald Coast Classic in Niceville, Fla.
Georgia Tech (5-1) has benefited from a friendly beginning to its nonconference slate, with its lone loss being a 92-87 setback at rival Georgia on Nov. 14. The Yellow Jackets shot a season-high 54.1% in their most recent win, an 82-66 victory over West Georgia.
“If we’re able to not turn the ball over, we could be really good,” said Georgia Tech head coach Damon Stoudamire, who also commended his team’s defense.
“I’ve been fortunate to have been a part of really good defensive teams as a coach, but this defense that we have is really elite. If we stick with that, we’ll be a really good team. The problem is when you don’t take care of the ball, you put pressure on your defense to get a stop every play.”
Friday will mark the Yellow Jackets’ first time leaving Georgia this season, giving Stoudamire a chance to use the tournament as a measuring stick.
“I’m looking forward to going down there and playing DePaul,” Stoudamire said. “It will give us a good opportunity to see where we’re actually at right now.”
Kowacie Reeves Jr. leads Georgia Tech by averaging 13.5 points per game, followed by Baye Ndongo’s 12.4.
Since falling to Buffalo and Northwestern, DePaul (4-2) has picked up a pair of double-digit victories over Gardner-Webb and Detroit Mercy. The Blue Demons are vying to post their first nonconference win over a power-conference team since beating Louisville in December 2023.
“We need to get better across the board,” DePaul head coach Chris Holtmann. “We’re playing a good Georgia Tech team. We just need to get a lot better. These are great tournaments to learn a lot about yourself. We have to play with more defensive effort and focus for 40 minutes.”
A rarity in college basketball, the Blue Demons’ three leading scorers have returned from last year’s team. CJ Gunn paces the offense with 15.8 points per game, while Layden Blocker adds 12.0 and NJ Benson adds 11.0.
–Field Level Media
