Cubaj, Lahtinen Lift Jackets Past Seminoles, 68-64

THE FLATS – Behind a career-high 24 points from Lorela Cubaj, No. 15 Georgia Tech women’s basketball collected its third win in five days, defeating Florida State, 68-64, Thursday night in McCamish Pavilion. The Seminoles led by seven with under four minutes to play, but the Yellow Jackets regrouped and posted a 13-2 run to close the game for the come-from-behind victory.

Georgia Tech (13-3, 4-1 ACC) held a seven-point lead at halftime, but Florida State (7-7, 1-3 ACC) came out of the break and slowly began chipping away at its deficit, knotting the game at 44-44 off a three-pointer from Sammie Puisis at the 2:22 mark. FSU would hold the advantage over the next 10 minutes, building its lead out to as many as seven points, before Cubaj connected on an old-fashioned three-point play with 3:33 in the fourth to spark Tech’s late rally.

Coming out of a FSU timeout, Lotta-Maj Lahtinen hit a clutch three-pointer with 2:17 to go, returning the lead to Georgia Tech, 63-62. Florida State’s Morgan Jones hit two free throws to give the Seminoles their final lead before Eylia Love’s second chance layup returned the permanent lead to Tech with 48.5 seconds on the clock.

The Yellow Jackets posted a strong first half from the Jackets, fueled by 15 points from Cubaj, to give Tech a 36-29 halftime advantage. Tech came out on fire, connecting on the first 5-of-7 from the field, forcing the Seminoles to burn an early timeout as Cubaj scored Tech’s first eight points of the game. The Jackets pushed their lead out to double-digits following a Love triple at the 2:44 mark in the first and led by as many as 12 points multiple times. Distributing its offense amongst six Jackets, Tech shot 51.7 percent (15-29) from the field in the first half.

Cubaj led all scorers with a career-high 24 points, followed by 16 points from Lahtinen and 10 from Love. The Jackets shot 45.6 percent (26-57) from the field and 66.7 percent (12-18) from the free throw line for the win.

Florida State was led in scoring by Jones and Makayla Timpson, each with 12 points, while Erin Howard added 11. The Seminoles won the rebounding battle, 36-33, paced by nine from Jones.

Georgia Tech plays its final game of this four-games-in-eight-days stretch on Sunday at Miami. Tip is slated for 2 p.m. in Coral Gables on the ACC Network.

Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Georgia Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of developing Georgia Tech’s Everyday Champions and helping the Yellow Jackets compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes. To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.   

 

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