Jan. 22, 2012
Tallahassee, Fla. – The Georgia Tech women’s basketball team (14-6, 4-3 ACC) relied on head coach MaChelle Joseph’s signature pressure defense to snap a three-game losing streak to Florida State (11-10, 3-4 ACC) with a 79-55 win over the Seminoles Sunday afternoon at the Donald L. Tucker Center in Tallahassee, Fla.
Georgia Tech finished the game having forced 24 FSU turnovers and converting them into 32 points on the offensive end.
“I really challenged the team the past three days to get back to playing Georgia Tech defense,” Joseph said. “I felt like we had got away from what we do really well, and that’s pressing, getting up in people, contesting and trapping people. I felt like today we came out and played 40 minutes of Georgia Tech defense. That’s one of the things we wanted to do at the beginning of the game. I was really excited to see our players on the bench play their roles. Our role players really stepped up and came to play today.”
Sophomore Tyaunna Marshall finished with a game-high 22 points, the fifth time this season and the 11th time in her career she has scored at least 20 points. Marshall blistered the nets, shooting 11-13 for the game, an 85 percent conversion rate.
“I thought Ty was really focused,” Joseph said. “She came out and wanted the basketball. A lot of teams have been putting their biggest, strongest, tallest guard on Me-Me trying to take her out. That left their second best defender on Ty and I thought she was really able to exploit that.”
Senior Sasha Goodlett added 15 points and seven rebounds for the Yellow Jackets. For the game, Tech shot nearly 55 percent, saw 11 different players score and got 28 points from reserves.
The Yellow Jackets began the game red hot and finished the opening 20 minutes at the Tucker Center having played arguably their best first half of the conference season. Tech went into the halftime lockerroom with a 45-28 lead after shooting 60.6 percent from the field in the first frame. The Yellow Jackets’ lead and first half shooting were both Tech bests since in seven ACC games this season.
By halftime, Marshall had accomplished what she had in 18 of the Jackets’ previous 19 games, crossed the double digit point threshold. The Upper Marlboro, Md., native was 6-of-7 from the field in the first half and had a game-high 12 points at the break.
Keying the Yellow Jacket first half offense was MaChelle Joseph’s signature stifling defense. Georgia Tech forced 12 first half Seminole turnovers and turned them into 14 points on the offensive end.
The Jackets didn’t relent to open the second half, forcing two quick turnovers, getting four points and outscored the host Noles 22-9 over the first nine minutes of half and grabbing their largest lead of the game, 30 points.
“There is no doubt that turnovers were the difference in the game,” Joseph said. “They got more free throws than us, they out-rebounded us, but they didn’t score more points off of turnovers. That’s one of the things we did a really good job of. We got back to being more aggressive, going for steals out of our traps and we were in better position. I was pleased with the way we defended.”
The Yellow Jackets will return to the Arena at Gwinnett Center to take on the Virginia Cavaliers Wednesday night in a 7 p.m. contest.
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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