Georgia Tech has silenced doubters and has done the unthinkable in the postseason. They’ve made it to the NIT Final after defeating Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners (25-10) 76-61 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night.
Starting guard Josh Okogie led the Yellow Jackets (21-15) in the win, as he dropped a game-high 22 points on the roadrunners defense. Ben Lammers added 15 points and 11 rebounds.
"Playing in the NIT, we were excited," head coach Josh Pastner said in a postgame interview. "We wanted to keep playing. This is important for our program."
Georgia Tech forced 15 turnovers while only committing seven. Eighteen of the Yellow Jackets' 76 points came off Cal State Bakersfield turnovers.
The Yellow Jackets shot exceptionally well on the floor as they hit 43.3 percent of their shots (26-for-60), while holding the Roadrunners to 35 percent shooting (21 for 60). At halftime, the Yellow Jackets had a 36-26 lead punctuated by Tadric Jackson's running 3-pointer at the buzzer. He finished with 12 points.
Georgia Tech put away the game halfway through the second half. Following Dedrick Basile's three pointer, which cut the lead to 40-31, Georgia Tech outscored Cal State Bakersfield 15-6 over a 4:53 span to push the advantage to 55-37. Okogie’s layup with 5:18 left in the game put Tech up 69-50, for their biggest lead of the match. However, it was his big two-handed dunk along the baseline with 2:38 left emphasized the rout.
"We definitely had great preparation prior to this game. We had a couple great practices and a great shoot around on being ball tough," Okogie said during the postgame press conference. "I think we did a good job of transitioning that into the game.
The Yellow Jackets improved to 14-9 all-time in the NIT, despite qualifying for the tournament's semifinal for the first time since 1971.
They will meet Texas Christian for the final on Thursday night.
