March 1, 2009
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ATLANTA (AP)– Iasia Hemingway scored 17 points and Alex Montgomery had 16 in Georgia Tech’s 74-66 victory over No. 22 Virginia on Sunday.
The Yellow Jackets (21-8, 8-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) closed the regular season with three straight wins and clinched the fifth seed in next week’s ACC tournament at Greensboro, N.C.
“I’m really happy with our effort today,” head coach MaChelle Joseph said. “We got a lot of hustle points, which we knew was going to be important coming into this game. Obviously we’re excited to finish fifth in the ACC and head to Greensboro as the fifth seed, one of the highest seeds we’ve ever had. We were picked to finish sixth, so we feel like we were successful.”
Ending a three-game winning streak, Virginia (22-8, 8-6) will play as the ACC’s sixth seed. Lyndra Littles led the Cavaliers with 21 points. Monica Wright had 18.
The Cavaliers, who committed a season-high 28 turnovers against a Georgia Tech defense that leads the nation in average steals, went nearly nine minutes without scoring after Littles’ layup cut the lead to six with 9:32 remaining.
“We didn’t do a very good job of running our offense today,” Virginia head coach Debbie Ryan said. “That was one of our biggest problems. You’ve got to credit Tech forcing us into 28 turnovers, and that was the difference in the game.
Brigitte Ardossi finished with 12 points and eight rebounds for Georgia Tech, which broke a two-game losing streak to Virginia and improved to 10-51 against the Cavaliers. Senior Jacqua Williams, playing her final game at Alexander Memorial Coliseum, added 14 points and three steals.
“Jacqua has changed our program,” Joseph said. “One of the things she enabled us to do when she came in was to put in a defensive system that fit my style and personality, I love to coach a full-court game of trapping and running and pressing. Jacqua fit that, and we were able to build that around her.”
This Associated Press contributed to this article
