Baye Ndongo totaled 20 points and 10 rebounds on Tuesday to help Georgia Tech fend off visiting Georgia Southern for a 68-66 victory in Atlanta.
Mouhamed Sylla posted 12 points and 11 boards for the Yellow Jackets (4-1), who made just 4 of 22 3-point attempts (18.2%) and committed 22 turnovers. Reserve Akai Fleming chipped in 10 points in the win.
Khayri Dunn’s 13 points led Georgia Southern (3-2), which was held below 89 points for the first time this season. Alden Applewhite had 11 points and 11 rebounds, while Tyren Moore and Nakavieon White finished with 10 points apiece.
After Georgia Tech trailed by a point at halftime, neither team took a two-possession advantage until Peyton Marshall’s layup gave the Yellow Jackets a 50-46 lead with 13:10 remaining.
Ndongo’s hook shot and three-point play gave Georgia Tech some breathing room, pushing the margin to seven at the 9:43 mark.
Sylla’s dunk extended the lead to 61-52, before Tavarus “Spudd” Webb’s much-needed 3-pointer pulled the Eagles within six with 7:42 left. The triple began an 8-0 Georgia Southern spurt, trimming the deficit to one on Webb’s free throw with 4:12 remaining.
Georgia Tech snapped a 5:36 scoreless stretch on Sylla’s first 3-pointer of his college career at the 2:27 mark, giving the Yellow Jackets a 64-60 edge. After Georgia Tech’s Jaeden Mustaf split a pair of free throws and Moore answered with a 3-pointer, Mustaf’s layup pushed the Yellow Jackets’ lead back to four with 1:19 left.
Sylla then split two foul shots with 19 seconds to go, but White’s 3-pointer with 10 seconds remaining pulled the Eagles within two. Kowacie Reeves Jr. missed the front end of a one-and-one at the line, but Georgia Southern was unable to get a shot off as the Yellow Jackets narrowly escaped.
Georgia Southern jumped out to a 9-3 lead on Moore’s 3-pointer with 17:43 left in the first half.
After Fleming and Ndongo made layups to cut the Yellow Jackets’ deficit to three, Georgia Southern went on an 8-0 run bookended by 3-pointers from Dunn and White, giving the visitors a 23-12 edge at the 11:23 mark.
Still trailing by 11, Georgia Tech embarked on a 13-0 run to hand the Yellow Jackets their first lead on Mustaf’s free throws with 6:06 remaining.
Dunn and Ndongo traded a pair of free throws on both team’s final possession of the first half, as the Eagles took a 37-36 lead into the second.
