Dec. 27, 2009
ATLANTA – The 24th-ranked Georgia Tech Women’s Basketball team (10-2) will begin play at the FIU Fun & Sun Classic Monday against Hampton (3-7). Tip-off at the U.S. Century Arena is slated for 7 p.m.
Gameday CentralGame #13 Date: Monday, December 28, 2009Event: FIU Fun & Sun ClassicOpponent: Hampton Lady PiratesTip-Off: 7:00 p.m. ETGame #14 Date: Tuesday, December 29, 2009Opponent: Florida International Golden Panthers/Bryant BulldogsTip-Off: 2/4:00 p.m. ETSite: U.S. Century Arena (5,000)Radio: WREK 91.1 FM/www.WREK.orgTalent: Richard Musterer (pbp) and LaChina Robinson (analyst)Live Stats: www.RamblinWreck.comTickets: All tickets are $5-7 per day
TECH VS. HAMPTON
• This is the first meeting between Georgia Tech and Hampton.
• Tech is 5-0 all-time against teams from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
• The Lady Pirates list two players from the state of Georgia on its 2009-10 roster.
• This will be the first of two trips to Miami in 2009-10 for Georgia Tech.
JACKETS AT FUN & SUN CLASSIC
The Yellow Jackets will face either host Florida International or Bryant in the second round game of the 2009 FIU Fun & Sun Classic. The Jackets are 1-0 all-time against FIU and have never faced the Bulldogs of Bryant. This is Tech’s third in-season tournament of 2009-10.
TECH IN REGULAR SEASON TOURNAMENTS
The Yellow Jackets are 99-23 all-time in regular season tournaments. The Jackets have won 36 of these tournaments including this season’s LIU Turkey Classic in Brooklyn, N.Y. Tech, who competed in the Preseason WNIT this year, will next compete in the FIU Fun & Sun Classic Dec. 27-28.
NINE DAYS OF DECEMBER
Head Coach MaChelle Joseph has never been shy at scheduling tough opponents but this year she has also scheduled one of the toughest stretches of basketball. Her Yellow Jackets closed out a stretch of five games in nine days beginning with the Mississippi Valley State game on Dec. 13 and ran to the Georgia State game on Dec. 22. The Jackets finished the stretch 5-0. Tech earned its small six-day break for the Christmas holiday.
COUNTDOWN TO 1,000
Alex Montgomery, an All-ACC third team member a year ago, is only 169 points shy of becoming the 23rd player in Yellow Jacket history to reach this milestone. Montgomery scored 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 122 in her career, which is good for sixth all-time. She is shooting .357 (8th all-time) from three-point range for her career. In her first six games this season, Montgomery has shot 18-47 (.383) from beyond the arc.
SENIOR CLASS LOOKING FOR MORE WINS
The 2009-10 senior class, Brigitte Ardossi and Tiffany Blackmon, have been part of 75 wins in their three seasons on the Flats, which is good for second all-time. The Jackets need five more wins 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 109 games since she came to Tech and has started 61 of them. 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 expects big things from her senior “enforcer”. She is putting up 12.8 points and 6.5 boards per game so far and has connected on 28-35 (.800) free-throw attempts in a career-high 27.5 minutes a game. Over the last four games, Ardossi has shot 71.8 percent from the field (28-39). She also recored her second career double-double (17 pts, 11 reb) in win at Georgia State.
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 (10.5), rebounds (5.8) and assists (3.8) over the first 12 games of the season. Foster notched her second career double-double (21 pts, 11 reb) in Tech’s 87-69 win over Oregon.
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 5.3 rebounds a game so far this season. Regins is also scoring 5.1 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 10.0 a game and is grabbing 5.4 rebounds a game. She also has recorded 22 steals in 12 games.
GOING OVER 80 (POINTS) IS NOT A FELONY
Georgia Tech is known more for its defense than its offense but over a three-game stretch from Dec. 13-18, the Yellow Jackets topped 80 points three times in three straight games (89 vs. Miss. Valley St, 87 vs. Oregon, 94 vs. Kennesaw St). It was the first time a Tech team accomplished this feat since scoring over 80 points in three straight games from Nov. 18-24, 2001.
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.
The Yellow Jackets have started 2009-10 with 126 steals (10.5 pg) in the first 12 games.
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 116-78 (.598) 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 491-505 (.493) in 996 games. Since the 2000-01 season, Georgia Tech has won 165 games (34 percent of all wins).
