CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — Georgia Tech held strong to the finish and captured a 71-67 victory at Boston College Thursday night for the first ACC win of the season. Francesca Pan led the Yellow Jackets with 17 points as Tech claimed its fourth straight win over the Eagles.
“I’m really proud of the way we stayed resilient when Boston College made a run at us,” stated head coach MaChelle Joseph. “Boston College is a very good basketball team and I thought the fact that we had 19 steals and 20 offensive rebounds showed that we played extremely hard. They are an experienced, veteran team and I looked down at the floor in critical times and we had four freshmen on the floor. Obviously we have to hit free throws and we have to take care of the basketball. Those are two areas that we can control. I’m just proud of our team for bouncing back and getting a good road win in the ACC.”
How It Happened
After the teams traded the lead back-and-forth in the early going, Kaylan Pugh jumpstarted a 14-0 Tech run over a three minute span to put the Jackets up 20-9 with 1:50 left in the first quarter. Mariella Fasoula, who led the Eagles with 12 first half points, snapped the run with a 4-0 spurt that cut the deficit to seven points. Pugh would open a 26-16 Tech lead with a layup and the Jackets would hold a comfortable double-digit advantage the remainder of the half. An 11-4 run midway through the second quarter gave the Jackets their largest lead of the half, 37-20, and Tech would lead 45-31 at halftime off a Zaire O’Neil layup at the buzzer.
BC outscored Tech 21-13 in the third quarter, allowing the Eagles to come within six points. The Eagles cut the score to nine points early in the frame before Tech regained a double-digit lead, but a 12-2 run that closed the frame sliced the score to 58-52 at the break. BC hit the first field goal of the fourth quarter to come within four points and despite the Jackets pushing out to an 11 point lead, BC was able to fight back with a late rally and draw the score to 71-67 with 2.5 ticks on the clock. The Jackets finished 4-of-6 from the free throw line to hold on for the four-point victory.
Tech Tidbits
* Kaylan Pugh earned her first start as a Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket tonight, finishing with 10 points, five steals, two assists and one rebound
* With the win, Tech improved to 12-4 overall and 1-2 in ACC play
* Francesca Pan led the Jackets with 17 points and was one of five to score in double-figures
* Zaire O’Neil and Antonia Peresson each added 12 points, while Imani Tilford and Pugh rounded out the players in double-figures
* Tech won the rebounding battle 41-36 and scored 31 points off 27 BC turnovers
* Tech finished 7-of-23 at the free throw line compared to Boston College’s 15-of-23 showing
Next Up
The Yellow Jackets return home to host No. 24 Syracuse on Sunday, Jan. 15. Tip is set inside McCamish Pavilion for 1 p.m. on RSN.
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