@GTWBB Travels to NC State Thursday

Jan. 6, 2016

STARTING FIVE

1. Georgia Tech hits the road for two straight games in search of its first ACC victory of the season. The Yellow Jackets travel to NC State on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and will face the Wolfpack at Broughton High School. The game can be heard on WREK 91.1.
2. This will be the 67th all-time meeting between Georgia Tech and NC State. The Jackets look to break at two-game losing skid to the Wolfpack and register its first win at NC State since a 79-70 win on Feb. 17, 2013. With Thursday being the 67th all-time meeting, NC State is now tied for Tech’s fifth-most played opponent.
3. There will be a familiar face on the NC State bench for senior Roddreka Rogers – her younger sister Rydeiah (DD) who is a freshman forward for the Wolfpack.
4. Senior Aaliyah Whiteside leads the ACC with her 20.1 points per game which also is 24th in the nation. She is also Tech’s leading rebounder with 7.5 boards per game, which is 8th in the ACC. She has scored at least 21 points in 11 of 15 games and had four-straight double-doubles this season. She notched a career-best 28 points in the Yellow Jackets’ victory at IUPUI and 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 242-154 and the highest winning percentage in Yellow Jacket history at 61.3 percent. She is currently in her 13th season at the helm of the Jackets and is 87-95 in her career in ACC play.

a win would…
– Break a two game losing streak in the series against NC State and give the Yellow Jackets their sixth win out of the past 10 games against the Wolfpack.
– Put the series at 43-24 in favor of NC State.
– Be the first road win at NC State since the Jackets won on Feb. 17, 2013, 79-70 and put Tech at 9-21 against the Wolfpack on the road.
– Give the Yellow Jackets an overall ACC record of 189-338 and an 88-95 record in the ACC under Coach Joseph.
– Be the 243rd win of Coach Joseph’s career and her 397th game at the helm of the Jackets putting her just three games away from hitting the 400 mark.
– Give Georgia Tech its 618th program win and put Georgia Tech at 618-581 overall over 41 years of women’s basketball.

sister act
Senior Roddreka Rogers’ younger sister, Rydeiah (DD), is a freshman on NC State’s women’s basketball team. The sisters will face each other for the first time in their careers on Thursday. Roddreka and Rydeiah’s father, Rodney Rogers, played basketball at Wake Forest from 1990-93 and in the NBA for 10 years. The sisters also have a younger brother, Tripple. Roddreka is averaging 12.9 ppg and 7.2 rpg her senior season and DD is averaging 3.6 ppg and 3.2 rpg in her rookie year.

the last meeting vs. nc state
The Yellow Jackets’ second-half comeback against NC State fell short as the Jackets lost 65-64 at home last season. Three Yellow Jackets recorded double-doubles in the loss – Katarina Vuckovic, Zaire O’Neil and Roddreka Rogers. The Jackets erased a 12 point deficit in the second half to tie up the game at 60-60. With the score knotted at 64-64 and 1.8 seconds to go, Len’Nique Brown-Hoskin went for the game-winning basket. Freshman Imani Tilford was called for a foul and Brown-Hoskin made her first free throw to give the Wolfpack the 65-64 lead and the victory.

leading by example
With Tech’s roster featuring nine freshmen and sophomores, seniors Aaliyah Whiteside and Roddreka Rogers’ leadership is key. The veteran duo has teamed up to score 43.5 percent of GT’s offensive output this season and have pulled down 37.3 percent of the Jackets’ rebounds this season. Whiteside has scored at least 21 points in 11 of 15 games while Rogers has tallied three double-doubles. Whitesides’ 11 20+ point games are a league high while Rogers’ 20 career double-doubles lead the ACC.

The senior duo led the Yellow Jackets to a 60-50 victory at IUPUI. Rogers and Whiteside combined to score 48 of Tech’s 60 points and the two went a combined 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the final 30 seconds of the game to secure the victory. Whiteside scored a career-best 28 points while Rogers recorded a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds.

keeping track of aaliyah
Senior Aaliyah Whiteside has scored at least 21 points in 11 out of 15 games this season. Her 11 20 point games are the most by any player in the ACC. She is averaging an ACC-high 20.1 points per game, which is 24th in the nation, and has scored 302 points so far, which is the most by an ACC player and sixth in the NCAA. Whiteside has scored at least 20 points in 18 games in her career.

After recovering from being sick, Whiteside only scored eight points against Alabama, snapping an 18-game streak of scoring at least 10 points, which dated back to last season. She followed up her eight-point game with a career-high 28 points at IUPUI. She has scored in double figures in 21 out of 22 games.

Whiteside has four double-doubles this season and nine in her career.  Her four this season came in consecutive games from Indiana to Prairie View A&M. Against Prairie View A&M, she scored 14 points and handing out 11 assists for her first points/assists double-double. In the contest, she had nine rebounds, putting her one rebound away from a triple-double.

roddreka “rebounds” rogers
Senior Roddreka Rogers cracked the top 10 on Georgia Tech’s all-time career rebounding list with her five boards against Indiana. Rogers now has 817 career rebounds, which puts her in sixth on the all-time career list. She needs 20 more rebounds to tie Alex Montgomery for fifth with 837. Rogers is 223 rebounds away from becoming the all-time career leader in rebounds. Her career rebounding average if 7.4 rebounds per game is tied for 8th in the Georgia Tech record book.