@GTWBB Hosts Wake Forest for Senior Day

Feb. 27, 2016

STARTING FIVE

1. Georgia Tech wraps up the ACC regular season on Sunday at home at 2 p.m. against Wake Forest on Senior Day. The game is on ESPN3 with Nate McCreary and former Yellow Jacket Theresa Gernatt. Richard Musterer and Fallon Stokes will have the call on WREK 91.1.
2. Georgia Tech and Wake Forest will meet for the 65th time in school history on Sunday, making the Demon Deacons the Yellow Jackets’ seventh most frequently played opponent. The Jackets lead the all-time series 40-24 and have won nine of the past 10 meetings including two-straight. Georgia Tech won last year’s meeting in Winston-Salem, 67-60.
3. Georgia Tech will honor four seniors prior to the game – graduate student Irene Gari and seniors Aaliyah Whiteside, Roddreka Rogers and Nariah Taylor. Taylor was granted a medical hardship prior to her senior year.
4. Senior Aaliyah Whiteside leads the ACC with her 19.4 points per game which is 38th in the nation. She is second on the Jackets in rebounding with 7.3 boards per game, which is 10th in the ACC. She has scored at least 20 points in 16 of 28 games and has five double-doubles this season. She scored her 1,000th career point against Southeastern Louisiana.
5. Head coach MaChelle Joseph became the all-time winningest coach in Georgia Tech women’s basketball history last year and has a career record of 249-160 and the highest winning percentage in Yellow Jacket history at 61.0 percent. She is currently in her 13th season at the helm of the Jackets and is 94-102 in her career in ACC play. She is going for her 250th win against Wake Forest.

a win would…
– Put the series against Wake Forest at 41-24 in favor of Georgia Tech and be the third-straight win against Wake Forest.
 – Give Coach Joseph a 14-5 record against the Demon Deacons.
– Be the fourth-straight win for Georgia Tech.
– Give the Yellow Jackets an overall ACC record of 196-344 and an 95-102 record in the ACC under Coach Joseph.
– Be the 250th win of Coach Joseph’s career and give her a 150-160 overall record.
– Give Georgia Tech its 625th program win and put Georgia Tech at 625-587 overall over 41 years of women’s basketball.

THANK YOU SENIORS!
Georgia Tech will honor four seniors prior to tonight’s game against Wake Forest – graduate student Irene Gari and seniors Aaliyah Whiteside, Roddreka Rogers and Nariah Taylor. Taylor did not play this season for she was granted a medical hardship prior to this season. The 2016 senior class has helped Georgia Tech win 20 games in their sophomore year, led the Yellow Jackets to two postseason appearances and won 70 career games. Gari made a tremendous impact in her one year on the court for Tech, while Rogers and Whiteside both have cemented their names in the Georgia Tech record books after four years of hard work for the Yellow Jackets.

HISTORIC WIN
Georgia Tech and Duke met for the 68th time in school history on Feb. 21 and the Yellow Jackets won. 64-59. Last season the Yellow Jackets snapped a 37-game losing streak that spanned from 1995-2014 after upsetting No. 16/17 Duke, 71-62, at McCamish Pavilion on Feb. 26, 2015.  The Yellow Jackets won for the first time at Cameron Indoor Stadium since an 86-80 overtime victory on Jan. 29, 1993. The last time the Jackets won at Cameron Indoor Stadium none of the current Yellow Jackets were born yet. This was Coach Joseph’s first win in Durham. She is 2-16 against the Blue Devils.

the last meeting vs. wake forest
Last season the Yellow Jackets used a huge second half to surge past Wake Forest in Winston Salem to win 67-60. Aaliyah Whiteside scored 18 points in the second half to helf the Jackets overcome a seven point deficit. She led the Jackets with a double-double, 18 points and 11 rebounds, in the victory.

clutch from the charity stripe
Senior Aaliyah Whiteside went 4-for-4 from the foul line in the final 18.7 seconds to secure the Yellow Jackets win at Pitt. Whiteside is shooting 83.7 percent (36-for-43) from the free throw line in the final five minutes of games and is 84.8 percent from the line overall (184-for-217). Whiteside has only missed 33 free throws the entire season and has shot 100 percent from the charity stripe seven times this season.

ANTONIA FOR THREE!
Antonia Peresson made six 3-pointers, including four in the first half, on her way to a career-high 20 points At Duke. Her previous career high was 17 points which scored against Alabama on Dec. 18, 2015. It was the second time this season that Peresson has led the Jackets in scoring. Peresson has made at least three 3-pointers in nine games this season and has hit at least one shot behind the arc in 23 of 27 games. In the past three games, Peresson has shot 52.1 percent (12-23) from behind the arc.

900 rebounds

With her first rebound against Duke, senior Roddreka Rogers recorded her 900th career rebound becoming just the third Yellow Jacket to grab at least 900 boards in their career. Rogers ranks third on Georgia Tech’s all-time rebounding list with 916 career rebounds.