Even Blue Cain’s teammates will tell you it’s hard to get more than a couple of words out of the freshman from Knoxville.

But while Cain may not be the most loquacious of Georgia’s basketball team, his play certainly speaks for itself.

Tuesday night against Georgia Tech – the school he originally committed to – Cain had a lot to say, scoring 12 points on four three-pointers as the Bulldogs routed thier arch-rival Yellow Jackets, 76-62.

“We just came out and played our game and focused on us rather than them,” said Cain.

Cain signed with Georgia after he was let out of his scholarship with the Yellow Jackets following the coaching change at the school earlier this year.

“But there’s no bad blood between us,” Cain said. “They’re a great organization. Coach (Damon) Stoudamire’s a great coach. I just tried to treat it as a normal game.”

Teammate Noah Thomasson can attest to that.

"He's a man of few words, he doesn't talk a lot," said Thomasson, when asked if Cain mentioned his brief time as a Yellow Jacket. "I asked him a couple of questions, but he just joked and laughed like he always does."

Cain was not the only story of the night for the Bulldogs (6-3) who ar now 3-1 against the ACC.

Thomasson led Georgia with 16 points, followed by Justin Hill with 12 points, with Jabri Abdur-Rahim joining Cain with 12.

Georgia never trailed in the game, building its lead as high as 23 points in the second half.

“The key was getting stops on defense. We’ve got a lot of elite shot-makers on this team, but if we don’t play defense it’s going to be hard to take these types of leads,” Thomasson said. “Especially, against really good teams like Georgia Tech.”

The game was never in doubt, although Georgia Tech made it somewhat interesting with a 9-0 run in the second half to draw within 14 with 7:31 left to play.

After a jump-ball tie-up resulted in a timeout, Georgia was able to get the ball to Cain, who avoided a Georgia Tech defender to drain his fourth three-pointer of the night and push the lead back to 15.

“Anytime you can stymie a run with a 3 at home and the crowd goes nuts, it helps,” Georgia head coach Mike White said. “We’ve just got to sprint back faster to set the defense.”

Georgia Tech was coming off wins over No. 21 Mississippi State and No. 7 Duke before Tuesday’s loss to Georgia.

“There were a lot of self-inflicted things, but at the same time, you’ve got to give Georgia credit because they made shots when they needed to,” Stoudamire said. “We botched a couple of assignments, but after the first 10 minutes, we never could really find our way, our rhythm.”

Georgia, which led 36-20 at the half, didn’t shoot particularly well itself, although the first 20 minutes was one of the Bulldogs’ most high-intense halves of the year.

Georgia seemed a step ahead, beating the Yellow Jackets to the ball, rarely allowing more than one shot before someone stepped in to snatch away the loose ball.

“We came out, and we kind of hit them in the mouth early,” Thomasson said. “They made a couple of punches, too, but we kept on punching, throwing punches and throwing punches.”

Once the Bulldogs found their rhythm, Georgia Tech had few answers.

A pair of three-pointers by Cain sparked runs of 12-2 and 9-4 before a step-back three by Thomasson with just over nine seconds left sent the Bulldogs into their locker room up 16.

“I thought we defended at a really high level against a team that’s really difficult to defend,” White said. “They were coming off one of the best weeks in college ball."

Boxscore

… R.J. Sunahara (knee) dressed out for the first time all year but did not play.

… Junior transfer Jalen DeLoach missed his second straight game due to injury.

… Tuesday’s crowd was 9,017

…The Bulldogs will now take a break for final exams before returning to the court on Dec. 16 against High Point.