Dec. 5, 2012
Georgia Tech concludes a very difficult three-game stretch and opens ACC play Thursday night when the Yellow Jackets travel to Durham, N.C., to take on the No. 4/4 ranked Duke Blue Devils.
It will be the third straight game against a top-15 team for the Jackets who played at No. 14 Purdue Nov. 28 and hosted No. 8 Georgia Dec. 2. This will be the first time Georgia Tech has opened ACC play in December since the 2001-02 season when the Jackets hosted Florida State on Dec. 5. The matchup with Duke gives Tech an ACC-opening foe from the Old North State for the sixth time in the last seven years. The only year in that stretch the Jackets didn’t face a team from the State of North Carolina was in 2008-09 when Tech hosted Boston College to open league play.
Junior Tyaunna Marshall tallied her seventh career double-double in the Jackets’ last outing with 10 points and 10 rebounds against Georgia. Freshman Aaliyah Whiteside posted a career- and team-best 14 points against the Lady Bulldogs, including a pair of 3-pointers and an assist in Tech’s last rally.
Following Thursday’s game at Duke, Tech will take a break from competition for final exams. The Jackets will be back in action Dec. 16 when they host Alcorn State.
RANK AND FILE
Duke will be the third straight ranked opponent Tech has faced, with two of those games coming on the road.
Tech started this streak with a game at Purdue, then 5-1 and ranked No. 14. The Jackets then hosted No. 8 Georgia who came to Atlanta with an 8-0 record. To finish, Tech travels to Durham to face the No. 4-ranked Blue Devils who own a 6-0 record.
The last time GT played three straight games against ranked foes came in the 2010-11 season when the Jackets went to No. 16/22 Miami, hosted No. 12/10 Maryland and went to No. 19/15 Florida State. Remarkably, that was the second time that season in which Tech played three consecutive ranked opponents. Earlier in the year, the Jackets hosted No. 1/1 UConn, and played No. 12/12 Georgetown and No. 4/4 Tennessee in the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
Those two occurrences mark the only two times under Joseph in which Tech has played three straight games against ranked opponents.
EARLY ACC-TION
The Dec. 6 ACC opener at Duke will mark the first time Tech has opened ACC play in December since the Jackets hosted Florida State on Dec. 5, 2001.
OLD NORTH OPENERS
Georgia Tech will open ACC play against a team from the Old North State for the sixth time in the last seven years. The only time Tech did not face a team from the State of North Carolina in it’s conference opener came in the 2008-09 season when the Jackets hosted Bosont College.
Four times in the last seven years GT has faced North Carolina in the ACC opener. Last year, Tech traveled to NC State to begin conference play.
FREQUENT FOE
Georgia Tech and Duke have met 63 times previously The Blue Devils are the Yellow Jackets’ fifth-most played opponent behind Clemson (68), North Carolina (68), Maryland (64) and Virginia (64).
DUAL THREAT
Juniors Tyaunna Marshall and Dawnn Maye are fourth and sixth, respectively, in the ACC in scoring through games of Dec. 4. The duo make Georgia Tech the only team to have two of the top six scorers in the conference.
