Jan. 13, 2010
ATLANTA – The 21st-ranked Georgia Tech Women’s Basketball team (14-3, 1-1 ACC), who have won nine of its last ten games, closes out its two-game homestand when it hosts Wake Forest (9-8, 1-1) Thursday evening. The game at Alexander Memorial Coliseum in the McCamish Basketball Complex is slated for 7:00 p.m.
Gameday CentralGame #18 Date: Thursday, January 14, 2010Opponent: Wake Forest Demon DeaconsTip-Off: 7:00 p.m. ETSite: Alexander Memorial Coliseum (9,191)Radio: WREK 91.1 FM/www.WREK.orgTalent: Richard Musterer (pbp) and Kurt Hoyt (analyst)Live Stats: www.RamblinWreck.com via GametrackerTickets: $7 for adults and $5 for children, seniors
GEORGIA TECH VS. WAKE FOREST
• Georgia Tech leads the all-time series 31-23.
• Georgia Tech has won four of the last five meetings.
• Tech has started the ACC season 2-1 only once under head coach MaChelle Joseph (2007-08 season).
• Tech is 145-326 (.308) all-time against teams in the ACC.
• Georgia Tech special assistant to the head coach LaChina Robinson was a four-year letterwinner for the Deacs.
WOMEN OUT FRONT CELEBRATION
The Georgia Tech women’s basketball team in conjunction with The Wreckin’ Crew, the team’s booster organization, will host the sixth-annual Women Out Front Celebration Thursday. The two groups will welcome 10 outstanding women, who have made a significant impact in their individual fields in the Atlanta area or in women’s basketball, into the class of 2010. Atlanta Dream owner Kathy Betty, who is one of the 10 honorees, will serve as the keynote speaker for the event.
ACC HERE WE COME
The Yellow Jackets, who finished the last year’s conference scheduled with an 8-6 record, are 1-1 over the first two games of the ACC portion of their schedule. The Jackets are 25-19 (.568) over the last three-plus seasons against ACC teams during the regular season. Tech will next travel to Boston College on Sunday, Jan. 17 at 1 p.m.
COUNTDOWN TO 1,000
Alex Montgomery, an All-ACC third team member a year ago, is only 102 points shy of becoming the 23rd player in Yellow Jacket history to reach this milestone. Montgomery, who has scored 153 points this season, finished with 335 points her freshman season and added 410 as a sophomore.
MONTGOMERY KNOCKS THEM DOWN FROM LONG RANGE
Alex Montgomery has become one of the most prolific three-point shooters in Georgia Tech history. She has knocked down 135 in her career, which is tied for fifth all-time. She is shooting .353 (8th all-time) from three-point range for her career. In her first 11 games this season, Montgomery has shot 31-87 (.356) from beyond the arc. If eligible (she has not played in 75% of team’s games), Montgomery would rank third in the ACC in 3-pointers made this season.
SENIOR CLASS LOOKING FOR MORE WINS
The 2009-10 senior class, Brigitte Ardossi and Tiffany Blackmon, have been part of 79 wins in their three plus seasons on the Flats, which has tied the all-time class record. The Jackets need one more win in 2009-10 for this years seniors to become the winningest senior class in the history of the women’s basketball program. Last years seniors hold the current record with 79 victories.
ARDOSSI THE AUSSIE
Senior Brigitte Ardossi, if nothing else, has been extremely consistent over her three-plus seasons on the Flats. The Melbourne, Australia native has played in all 114 games since she came to Tech and has started 66 of them. She ranked seventh all-time in Tech history in field-goal percentage by shooting .498 (264-530) from the field. As a junior, she averaged 7.7 points and 4.5 rebounds, while shooting a team-best 81.9 percent from the free-throw line.
This season, coach Joseph is seeing a big return from her senior “enforcer”. She is putting up 13.5 points and 6.8 boards per game so far and has connected on 50-64 (.781) free-throw attempts in a career-high 27.5 minutes a game. Ardossi has scored in double figures in 10 straight games and 15 of the Yellow Jackets 17 contests this season.
DEJA VU – FOSTER SHOWING IMPROVEMENT ON PREVIOUS SEASON
Just like 2008-09, junior Deja Foster has shown improvements on her previous season. Though her scoring average has not jumped eight point like the previous season, she has put up career-highs in points (10.2), rebounds (6.7) and assists (3.8) over the first 17 games of the season. Foster has notched a pair of double-doubles this season and grabbed a career-best 14 rebounds in win over Army.
Foster has played so well this season, she is currently one of only two players (Shenise Johnson, Miami) in the ACC to rank in the top 25 of scoring, top 15 of rebounding and top 10 of assists.
REBOUNDING WITH REGINS
Sophomore Chelsea Regins is known to be very active when she gets on the court and it showed when she grabbed a career-high 16 boards to go with her 11 points against Florida Gulf Coast. She did not only record her first career double-double, it was also the first time a Yellow Jackets has recorded 16 rebounds in a game since Sonja Mallory had 16 rebounds against Wake Forest on Jan. 31, 2003. She is pulling down 4.6 rebounds a game so far this season. Regins is also scoring 5.2 points a contest for Tech.
THE `MO’TER IS RUNNING
While junior Alex Montgomery was out with an injury, sophomore Mo Bennett filled in admirably for the All-ACC wing. Bennett has shown her ability to score (career-high 21 points vs. Winthrop) and the ability to rebound (career-high 13 rebounds vs. FGCU). Bennett put it all together in a win at Kennesaw State with her first career double-double (23 pts, 11 reb). She is scoring 9.4 a game and is grabbing 5.8 rebounds a game. She also has recorded 31 steals and 42 assists in 17 games. Bennett, who is only 5-10, has registered at least seven rebounds in six games this season.
WALTHOUR CONTROLS THE OFFENSE
Sophomore Metra Walthour has become a real leader on the court with the basketball. Walthour currently leads the ACC in Assist/Turnover Ratio with a 2.0 ratio (57 assists to 28 turnovers), which is 0.2 points better than the second ranked player. She is averaging 3.4 assists and 4.6 points in a team-high 30.7 minutes per game.
94 FEET WITH THE JACKETS
Over the past two seasons, Georgia Tech has led the NCAA in steals per game. This has to be credited to Coach Joseph’s pressing defense. Joseph will press for 40 minutes with numerous pressing schemes to keep the offense offbalance. Joseph wants her team to “be an impressive running defensive team that creates opportunities for the offense.” The team has totaled 890 steals the past two years, good for 13.9 per game. Under Coach Joseph, the Yellow Jackets have registered the three top seasons for steals in school history.
The Yellow Jackets have started 2009-10 with 184 steals (10.8 pg) in the first 17 games.
HOME-COURT ADVANTAGE
Since Joseph began her tenure, Georgia Tech is 76-22 (.776) at Alexander Memorial Coliseum. Last season, Tech finished with a 13-2 mark on the Coliseum floor. Tech has won its first seven games at home in 2009-10 and is scheduled to play 14 games during the season.
TECH ENTERS SEVENTH SEASON UNDER COACH JO
Coach MaChelle Joseph, who is entering her seventh season at Georgia Tech, has already recorded the second-most wins in Tech history. Joseph has registered a 120-79 (.603) record and is the fastest coach in school history to win 100. She has led Tech to its three straight 20-win seasons and three straight NCAA Tournaments, both firsts for the Yellow Jacket program. Joseph registered her 100th victory on Feb. 1, 2009 against Clemson.
MARCH TO WIN No. 500
The Georgia Tech women’s basketball program is nine wins shy of the programs 500th all-time victory. Over the 35-plus seasons of women’s basketball on the Flats, Tech is 495-506 (.495) in 1,001 games. Since the 2000-01 season, Georgia Tech has won 169 games (34 percent of all wins).
