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Ark.-Pine Bluff-Georgia Tech Preview

Dec 15, 2009 - 10:13 PM By MATT BEARDMORE STATS Writer

Arkansas-Pine Bluff (0-7) at Georgia Tech (7-1), 8:30 p.m. EDT

Coming off an impressive victory in its first true road game of the season, Georgia Tech returns to Alexander Memorial Coliseum with a very good chance to continue its home domination of non-conference opponents.

The No. 22 Yellow Jackets (7-1) face an Arkansas-Pine Bluff team searching for its first victory of the season Wednesday night.

Playing its first game in nine days, Georgia Tech won its sixth straight Monday, 95-64 over host Chattanooga.

"I thought the last 5 minutes or so of the first half, we started to execute things," said coach Paul Hewitt, whose team has won its four home games by an average of 22.8 points. "We got a good win, since it's our first true road game. It was a good experience and good opportunity for our guys."

Junior Gani Lawal scored a season-high 29 points, freshman forward Derrick Favors had 14 points and 10 rebounds and Georgia Tech made a season-high 60.8 percent from the field, going 7 of 16 from 3-point range.

It was the Yellow Jackets' best shooting performance since hitting 65.0 percent in a 30-point win over Jackson State on Nov. 13, 2006.

"When we established both Gani and Derrick we have a chance to be a very good team," Hewitt said.

Lawal had 17 points and 13 boards in a 74-47 home win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff last Nov. 25.

The Yellow Jackets defeated the Golden Lions 113-75 on Nov. 23, 2002, in the teams' first meeting.

While Georgia Tech opens a four-game homestand that includes Sunday's ACC opener against Florida State, Arkansas-Pine Bluff (0-7) continues its brutal schedule. The Lions don't play their first home game until Jan. 16 versus Southern University.

"When we begin to put together our schedule for this season our goal was to play teams during non-conference play that would challenge us and help us improve overall," coach George Ivory told the school's official Web site in the preseason. "During non-conference your able to get a good gauge as to what type of team you have."

Any thoughts the Golden Lions had of upsetting Oklahoma State on Sunday ended when the Cowboys went on an 11-0 second-half run and coasted to an 81-66 victory.

Sophomore guard Savalance Townsend had 16 points and Lebaron Weathers scored 10 as Arkansas-Pine Bluff fell to 0-7 for the second straight season.

Weathers, a senior, leads the Golden Lions with 6.3 rebounds per game. He had 11 points and seven boards in the loss to Georgia Tech last season.

The Yellow Jackets have won seven straight and 52 of 58 at home versus non-conference foes. Arkansas-Pine Bluff has lost all nine of its games against ranked teams by an average of 42.3 points.