Jan. 25, 2012
Duluth, Ga. – Sasha Goodlett’s sixth double-double of the year led the Georgia Tech women’s basketball team (15-6, 5-3 ACC) to its fourth consecutive home win over the Virginia Cavaliers (15-7, 3-5 ACC), 63-53, Wednesday night at the Arena at Gwinnett Center.
Goodlett finished with game-highs of 14 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Yellow Jackets. Sophomore Tyaunna Marshall tallied her 20th double figure scoring game of the year with 13 points, and senior point guard Metra Walthour added 11 points, six assists and six rebounds as Tech improved to 7-2 at home this season.
“You just have to start embracing teams focusing on you,” Goodlett said. “Once you start putting up really good numbers, teams are going to know that they have to figure out a way to stop you. My job is to come night in and night out, and give my team what it needs. And it needs me to not be denied and be the post presence. When we’re all on the same page, we’re a pretty good team.”
The Yellow Jackets have now won four of their last five games as conference play nears the midpoint of the season.
“First of all, I was really proud of our effort tonight,” head coach MaChelle Joseph said. “Coming off the big win at Florida State, you never know how a team is going to respond. Playing a very, very good Virginia team tonight, I was pleased with our ability to sustain our confidence, momentum and our defensive presence. To hold them to 53 points is huge for us.
“We’ve talked a lot over the last week about our defensive effort and I felt like we did a really good job defensively,” Joseph continued. “I was really impressed with Sasha, sometimes triple and quadruple teamed, to come away with a double-double, shows a lot of growth in her game, in her poise and her composure.”
After shooting 61 percent in the first half at Florida State Sunday, the Yellow Jackets came out cold to open against Virginia, making only four of their first 12 shots and trailing 13-9 at the under 12 media timeout. From that point, Tech re-gained its shooting stroke and made nine of its final 16 shots of the half to take a 34-30 lead into intermission. Walthour made three 3-pointers in the final 7:02 of the first half to spark the Tech shooting turnaround.
It is the 16th time this season the Yellow Jackets have led after the opening 20 minutes and Tech owns a 14-2 record in those games.
“The good thing about having Dawnn [Maye] on the floor at the same time is we’re able to play off each other and create shots for others, as well as for each other,” Walthour said. “We really like to play off each other, me Ty and Dawnn. And getting Sasha the ball, those are easy assists every night.”
Tech held the Cavaliers without a field goal for the first three-and-a-half minutes of the second half as the Jackets opened a 40-31 lead.
The Yellow Jackets used a 12-2 run from the 9:28 mark of the second half to the 4:36 point to break open a three-point game and give Tech a 13-point lead. Freshman Sydney Wallace knocked down two 3-pointers in a 30 second span to spark the run, and capped it with a fastbreak layup on a Walthour assist.
Tech held Virginia to only two field goals in the final four-plus minutes to hold on for the 10-point win.
The Yellow Jackets finished the game with an impressive 18 assists on 24 shots. In addition to Walthour’s six dimes, sophomore Dawnn Maye dished out seven and Marshall tallied four assists.
“We’ve been doing that [high assist ratio] for, I feel like, most of the year,” Joseph said. “I think the only thing on the stat sheet I’m disappointed with is our turnovers. For us to have 20 turnovers against a zone is not like us. That just tells you how good Virginia’s defense is.
“For Me-Me Walthour to go for 11 [points], 6 [rebounds], and 6 [assists]. Those are big numbers for the smallest player on the court. I felt like these two seniors [Goodlett and Walthour] stepped up and were huge for us tonight,” Joseph added.
The Yellow Jackets will now make the short road trip to Clemson for a 4 p.m. contest with the Lady Tigers (5-12, 1-5 ACC) Sunday at Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson, S.C.
Tech fans can purchase an ACC pack for 2012 Yellow Jacket conference games through RamblinWreck.com where fans can choose any three ACC home games for only $9.
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