Baye Ndongo scores 17 to lead Georgia Tech past Charleston Southern

Baye Ndongo had 17 points and eight rebounds, helping the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets earn a 91-67 win over the visiting Charleston Southern Buccaneers in Atlanta, Ga., on Wednesday.Naithan George

Baye Ndongo scores 17 to lead Georgia Tech past Charleston Southern

Baye Ndongo had 17 points and eight rebounds, helping the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets earn a 91-67 win over the visiting Charleston Southern Buccaneers in Atlanta, Ga., on Wednesday.

Naithan George also scored 17 points, adding seven assists for Georgia Tech (3-3), which snapped a two-game losing streak. Jaeden Mustaf added a career-high 16 points off the bench, while Lance Terry scored 15.

Taje’ Kelly led Charleston Southern (1-7) with 20 points. Thompson Camara chipped in 14 for the Buccaneers, who dropped their fifth straight game and are still searching for their first win over a Division I opponent.

After trailing by as many as 19 in the first half, and by 15 at halftime, Charleston Southern cut its deficit to 48-40 with an 8-1 run to start the second half.

The Yellow Jackets then answered with a 9-0 run, stamped with Luke O’Brien’s 3-pointer with 13:49 remaining. From there, the Georgia Tech lead ballooned to 69-48 on Mustaf’s jumper at the 9:05 mark.

Camara’s 3-pointer trimmed the Buccaneers’ deficit to 16 with 4:33 left, but Ndongo’s ensuing layup began a 12-4 Georgia Tech run to finish off the win.

Early in the first half, Kelly’s triple knotted the score at 10, before Ndongo’s layup finished Georgia Tech’s 6-0 run.

A pair of Ndongo mid-range jumpers then jumpstarted an 8-0 Yellow Jackets spurt, extending Georgia Tech’s lead to 24-12 with 10:50 left in the opening half.

Mustaf’s jumper gave the Yellow Jackets their largest lead to that point, a 45-26 advantage at the 1:48 mark of the opening half. Charleston Southern answered with a 6-0 run before Terry’s jumper with 16 seconds left gave Georgia Tech a 47-32 halftime lead.

Ndongo paced Georgia Tech with nine first-half points, while Kelly paced the Buccaneers with nine.