SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A friendly rivalry between teammates Gani Lawal and Derrick Favors means trouble for opponents of No. 21 Georgia Tech.
The two big men each scored 18 points and added three blocks apiece Friday to lead the Yellow Jackets (2-1) to a 70-62 victory over George Mason on Friday in the consolation round of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip-Off.
“We push each other to see who can get the most rebounds, score the most points,” Favors said.
Favors scored six of his points in a 13-0 run, capped by one of his dunks, that gave the Yellow Jackets a 43-23 lead with 15 minutes to play. The Patriots (2-2) got no closer than six points the rest of the way. George Mason coach Jim Larranaga said he could not remember a game in which his team had been dunked on so many times.
“The two big guys just manhandled us inside,” he said. “I’ll have to watch the tape to see how they were able to do it so easily.”
Georgia Tech tallied 12 assists and coach Paul Hewitt said his team made fewer mistakes compared with its first-round performance in a 63-59 loss Thursday to No. 18 Dayton.
“The big thing today is our point guards played with poise and got the balls in to them in the right spots,” Hewitt said.
Lawal had a game-high 14 rebounds for Georgia Tech, which, as he noted, gave him the edge over Favors.
for the day.
“When we’re on, we really dominate,” Lawal said. “When our hands are up and we’re active, it’s hard for anyone to score on us.”
The two big men each scored 18 points and added three blocks apiece Friday to lead the Yellow Jackets (2-1) to a 70-62 victory over George Mason on Friday in the consolation round of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip-Off.
“We push each other to see who can get the most rebounds, score the most points,” Favors said.
Favors scored six of his points in a 13-0 run, capped by one of his dunks, that gave the Yellow Jackets a 43-23 lead with 15 minutes to play. The Patriots (2-2) got no closer than six points the rest of the way. George Mason coach Jim Larranaga said he could not remember a game in which his team had been dunked on so many times.
“The two big guys just manhandled us inside,” he said. “I’ll have to watch the tape to see how they were able to do it so easily.”
Georgia Tech tallied 12 assists and coach Paul Hewitt said his team made fewer mistakes compared with its first-round performance in a 63-59 loss Thursday to No. 18 Dayton.
“The big thing today is our point guards played with poise and got the balls in to them in the right spots,” Hewitt said.
Lawal had a game-high 14 rebounds for Georgia Tech, which, as he noted, gave him the edge over Favors.
for the day.
“When we’re on, we really dominate,” Lawal said. “When our hands are up and we’re active, it’s hard for anyone to score on us.”