Feb. 27, 2011
Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery
ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech women’s basketball team suffered a 70-59 loss to No. 12/14 Miami on Sunday afternoon at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
The loss drops the Yellow Jackets to 21-9 overall and 9-5 in the ACC, while the Hurricanes clinched at least a share of the ACC regular season crown and improved to 26-3 overall and finished with a 12-2 league mark.
Prior to the game, Georgia Tech honored the 2011 senior class of Deja Foster and Alex Montgomery. The pair has been a part of 88 career wins during their four-year career and 32 ACC wins, both of which tie Yellow Jacket records for wins by one class.
“To say we’re disappointed would be an understatement,” head coach MaChelle Joseph said. “It’s one thing to lose a game, but to lose a game on senior night, is a very disappointing situation. We have to protect our home court. If we’re serious about going to the next level, then we have to show up at home. I thought today we had one or two players show up, but the rest of the team didn’t play their roles. We can’t win a game against a top 20 team with two players.”
Montgomery posted her 19th career double-double and 10th this season with 13 points and 11 rebounds in her final game at Alexander Memorial Coliseum, and Foster was 4-of-6 from the floor and finished with nine points and four rebounds.
Freshman Tyaunna Marshall played aggressively all afternoon and scored a team-best 15 points, to go with six rebounds, two assists and two steals. Junior point guard Metra Walthour played 39 minutes for the sixth time this season and finished with 11 points. Junior Sasha Goodlett’s shots weren’t falling and she finished with only six points, but grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.
“We outrebounded [42-39] them and we felt like we played pretty good defense until the end there, but we have to score,” Joseph added. “If we don’t score we can’t set our presses and our presses are the strength of our team. That was something that hurt us tonight, not being able to score and get into our presses, get more turnovers and get some easy points.”
The first half featured fast-paced action and a back-and-forth action for a full 20 minutes, including two ties and six lead changes.
The Jackets took their first lead of the game, 17-16, with 12:10 remaining in the first half. But the Hurricanes’ Riquna Williams answered with a three to give the lead back to Miami.
Despite shooting only 37.5 percent in the first half to Miami’s 41.4, Georgia Tech only trailed by one, 30-29, at intermission, and the Jackets had an opportunity to take a lead into the lockerroom, but Montgomery’s last second shot from the baseline rolled off the front edge of the rim.
Miami stretched its lead to four, 35-31 in the first 1:25 of the second half, but Tech fought back to take a slim 37-36 lead on Marshall’s fastbreak layup at the 16:34 mark.
Unfortunately for the Jackets, their shooting woes continued in the second half and Miami’s top-ranked offense heated up. The Hurricanes were 14-of-27 from the floor, 51.9 percent, while Tech was only able to muster a 12-of-33 effort, 36.4 percent.
With the loss to Miami and Maryland’s win at Boston College earlier in the day, Georgia Tech will be the No. 5 seed in next week’s ACC Tournament in Greensboro, N.C., and will face 12th seeded Virginia Tech at 11 a.m. on Thursday. The Hokies lost to rival Virginia, 73-71, on Sunday and are 11-18 overall and 1-13 in conference play.
The Jackets beat Virginia Tech, 78-57, on Jan. 27 in Blacksburg. Game time for the 5-12 contest in Greensboro is 11 a.m. Thursday with the ACC’s regional sports network broadcasting the game. For more information, please visit RamblinWreck.com or theACC.com.
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