Dec. 20, 2006
Charleston, S.C. – The Yellow Jackets (7-3) dominated the College of Charleston (4-6) in their own house Wednesday, holding them to 34.5 percent shooting in an 82-50 win, for the third road win of the season, and second in a row. Tech didn’t allow a single Cougar to score more than seven points and held all five starters to at least six.
The Yellow Jacket defense didn’t allow a Cougar field goal until almost 5:00 had ticked off the game clock. Jacqua Williams came up with three steals in that time, accounting for half of the Jackets’ six first-half steals. The sophomore steal specialist tied a season high with four steals, bringing her season total to 31 steals. Williams entered the game with the third highest steal total in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Williams, who has seen her playing time increase steadily over the last five games, was also stellar on offense, shooting a perfect 4-for-4 from the field and 1-for-1 from the line for almost the entire first half. Her perfection was disrupted when a 15 footer went begging with under 20 seconds left in the half. She finished the night tied for second on the team with 12 points, shooting 5-for-7 from the field and 2-for-2 from the line. Williams added four assists and three rebounds in her 21 minutes of play.
Chioma Nnamaka came out shooting for the Jackets, draining 3-of-4 from three-point land in the first 9:00 of the game. The Uppsala, Sweden native finished tied for the team high with 21 points, 15 of those points coming from behind the arc. Nnamaka currently leads the ACC in three-point field goals made and tied her season-high with five threes Wednesday.
Janie Mitchell tied fellow co-captain Nnamaka with 21 points and earned her second double-double of the season with a team-high 10 rebounds. Mitchell, a forward who typically does her damage close to the basket, nailed her only three-point attempt and missed only two of her eight free throw attempts. Mitchell also grabbed a season-high three steals adding to the team’s 11 total steals.
The Yellow Jackets will take a four-day break for the Christmas Holiday and return to the court to host the Atlanta Marriott Holiday Invitational at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum Dec. 29-30. The tournament will include Alcorn State, Mississippi State and Tennessee State and begins with a Georgia Tech and Alcorn State 1 p.m. tip off.
